


Over the Desert Sands

by fleets



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Amnesia, Friends to Enemies, Genderfluid Sheik, M/M, Retribution, enemies to friends to enemies to (?), identity search, initially was thinking shippy but it's probably more like strong frienship ship, not what it seems, searching for truth, test of loyalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-07-22 16:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 61,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7445464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleets/pseuds/fleets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one walks the Valley of the Dead, the vast and empty desert beyond the plains. No one knows what lies beyond it, or if anything lives under its merciless sun. Some whisper of a god who resides in the forgotten ruins, an Arbiter who weighs the sins of man. Others speak of a serpent that drags the wicked down below the scorching sands. All stories converge on the fact that those who enter, never return.<br/>It is here that two young men awake, chained together by their ankles, and with no memory of their past save for their names. As they attempt to cross the lonely desert, they try to piece together the history of the empty world they find themselves in, as well as who they really are. </p><p>Each step brings them closer to an increasingly ominous truth. Each step brings further clarity that their companion is not who they believed them to be. </p><p>And both are promised freedom from the endless wasteland and the truth of their past, on the condition that they kill the other. </p><p>A story about friendship and retribution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Endless Desert

__

**The Broken Tower**

_Wake up._

Red eyes struggled to open, heavy-lidded. They squinted closed again when the blinding ray of the sun burned white their vision. Calloused fingers brushed against sand, hot against their skin.

A groan.

_Wake up._

Red eyes fluttered open again, reluctant. The young man slowly lifted himself up, the sand falling away from his faded beige tunic. He lifted a hand to his head gingerly, nursing a faint headache and brushing away the blond locks away from his face, and he pushed away the tattered cowl that had fallen over his head. He looked around at the unforgivingly vast and empty expanse of sand with no hint of life for miles, and he tried to remember what had happened.

His mind was as empty as the desert around him. Where was this place, and how did he get here?

_I will see you soon, Sheik…_

He looked around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. The voice was androgynous, and wispy and dry like the desert around him. He couldn’t see the owner of the voice anywhere, and by the time it drifted away like an echo, he wondered if he hadn’t imagined it. However, the voice had left him with a name, and somehow he was sure that the name was his.

Sheik.

The young man crawled up onto his feet slowly. His legs felt a little numb at first, and he had to wait a few minutes for sensation to come back to them again. He looked at his own clothes, and judging from the faded, tattered linen that was frayed along the edges, it almost seemed like he was wearing the bare clothes of a prisoner or slave.

Perhaps he should have been concerned, but his pulse was steady and he was somehow calm about the situation he found himself in. It was almost like a part of him knew what all of this meant and that he’d expected it, even if he wasn’t consciously aware of it. He was more unnerved by how calmly he was handling this situation more than anything. It left him with even more questions: what had he been expecting in this goddess forsaken desert…? He couldn’t remember anything, and the only thing that he knew right now was his name.

Movement surprised him, and he whirled around towards its direction. His eyes widened when he suddenly noticed that he wasn’t alone like he’d first assumed. Lying just by his feet was another young man, barely conscious and wearing the same tattered rags that he was. Confusion flashed across Sheik’s face as he wondered how in the world he’d missed him when he was lying just next to him. As though in answer to his thoughts, more movement caught the edge of his eye, and he snapped his head towards the horizon. He caught a glimpse of something that looked like ruins in the distance, before they disappeared once more, making him question if he’d seen them at all.

There was something strange about this desert. It tricked the senses.

The young man next to him stirred with a faint groan. Perhaps he’d always been there, but the strange properties of the desert had hidden him from him. Sheik watched him as the young man sat up with some difficulty, and Sheik remembered the numb sensation of his legs when he’d first awoken. The stranger, his back turned to him, looked out at the desert expanse in awe and surprise. Then, he turned around, finally noticing Sheik.

His eyes were red and piercing, the intuitive eyes of someone who knew when someone was or wasn’t telling the truth: formidable if a friend, dangerous if an enemy. His skin was exceptionally pale, almost to the point that it shone white in the sun, and his light lavender hair fell messily over his shoulders. He seemed out of place in rags.

“The voice…?”

Sheik blinked, and then realized that the stranger had mistaken him to be the owner of the mysterious voice that he himself had heard before. He shook his head, which sent a shadow passing over the stranger’s face as he thought some more about the situation he found himself in.

“What is this place?” the young man asked again after a while. Before Sheik answered, the young man came to the answer himself. With a bitter snort, he turned away from Sheik and looked out towards the yellow haze of the horizon. “You don’t know, do you,” he murmured to himself.

Sheik nodded quietly, and the two of them continued to look out at the hopelessly empty sands, each lost in their own thoughts. Sheik was curious about the stranger who’d woken beside him, wearing the same tattered rags and seemingly without knowledge of where they were and how they’d gotten there. From the stern yet almost cynically accepting expression of the other’s face, he sensed that the pale youth had also experienced the strange feeling of having expected finding themselves here.

After several minutes of silence, Sheik noticed that the stranger had been glancing at him from time to time, no doubt curious about his presence as much as he was of him. Their eyes met, and for a brief moment Sheik saw distrust and caution mirror back to him before the stranger flipped his head away again to stubbornly stare back at the horizon.

Neither of them trusted each other, that much was clear.

However, they were completely alone in an unforgiving desert, and aside from the mysterious voice, all they had right now was each other. Sheik could begin to feel the sweltering sun burning against the exposed parts of his skin, encouraging urgency to find some kind of escape from the desert. He decided to break the tension between them first.

“Do you have a name?” he asked.

His question prompted the stranger to lift his head slightly. He was quiet for a while, contemplating on whether or not to tell him, before he finally answered with a sigh.

“Vaati.”

Sheik stared at him. The name unfortunately wasn’t familiar to him, and no memory came to him that suggested that they ever knew each other. He wondered again for what purpose they were there, and why the two of them in particular.

“So who in Farore are you?” Vaati demanded, impatience finding its way to his voice.

_Farore. Something about that name rings a bell…_ , Sheik thought, momentarily distracted by the name he finally seemed to recognize. He couldn’t get a firm grasp on the memory, however, and he realized that Vaati was beginning to narrow his eyes into a glare when he’d taken too long to respond. “Sheik,” he replied quickly. Vaati didn’t seem satisfied with the answer, so he added, “I don’t know much beyond that, I’m afraid.”

For once, Vaati looked sympathetic, and his scowl from earlier softened just a little. “I see…” he said, and though he didn’t elaborate further, Sheik understood that Vaati had woken the same as he had: no memory of his past save for his name, with a strange voice urging him to wake.

The voice had insisted that they would see them soon…

Vaati seemed to have the same thought he did, and he suddenly looked up again. He still seemed cautious, but slightly more open to conversation now that he knew that Sheik was going through the same thing he was. “You heard the voice too, didn’t you?” When Sheik nodded in response, Vaati frowned, anger just bubbling beneath the surface. “They must know what happened to us,” he muttered under his breath, “when I find them, they’re going to give answers…” he trailed off, with an undertone of a threatening, unspoken “or else.”

Sheik opened his mouth to point out that they probably wouldn’t even have to look for the owner of the voice, considering they’d promised they would meet them soon. Then, he decided to keep his silence. Being smart wasn’t going to earn favors, and it would be advantageous if he could keep this Vaati on friendly terms, if possible. For all he knew, the youth could be someone dangerous.

Though, he supposed he could say the same of himself as well.

At any rate, they couldn’t sit in this desert forever, and they needed some kind of plan. Sheik trusted the voice when it had said they would meet soon, but he didn’t want to wait and find out that he’d been wrong. The sun was almost at the peak in the sky, and they needed to find some kind of shade before it hit the hottest point in the day. Between the two of them they had no water or provisions, and they weren’t going to survive long if they didn’t find something fast.

Sheik began to walk towards a tall sand dune nearby, hoping to see something other than endless sand from the top of it. As he did so, his ankle caught something, and there was an angry exclamation behind him. Turning around, he saw to his surprise that chains had suddenly appeared around his and Vaati’s ankles, binding them together.

At least, he thought the chains had appeared suddenly. He would have noticed them if they had been there before, wouldn’t he? And if not him, then Vaati surely would have realized that there were thick, metal rings around his ankles…

He exchanged shocked glances with Vaati, who initially had an enraged expression but had since become one of confusion. Vaati looked spooked, even, and Sheik took that as a sign that he hadn’t indeed imagined the chains having suddenly appeared.

He could have wondered about the meaning of the chains, where they came from and why they were there, but Sheik preferred to tackle problems that had obvious, immediate solutions. It wasn’t going to do much good to just sit around and think about strange hypotheticals. They needed to escape the desert: that was their first priority.

“Follow me,” he said, and cocked his head towards the sand dune he’d been walking towards. Vaati took one look and quickly got up to follow with a short nod. Sheik almost smiled in relief. Though his companion seemed rather irritable with a difficult personality, he at least seemed sharp and quick to pick up on things without the need of lengthy explanation. Finding a way out was going to be quicker if the two of them were on the same page.

The walk to the summit of the dune was long and exhausting. Vaati seemed to struggle with the climb more than Sheik, but whenever he looked back at the pale youth, he glared back something fierce as though daring him to ask if he was going to be okay. _What pride he has…_ , Sheik thought to himself. He had to respect his companion’s determination, though. It was the kind of determination that could lead one to do great things, regardless of whether they were on the brink of death.

Sheik had been ready to be disappointed when they reached the summit of the dune, so he was surprised when they _did_ actually see something other than a sea of sand surrounding them. Straight ahead of them, they could see a shimmer along the horizon, some shadows breaking the light. The heat distorted their vision and it could very well be a mirage, but the way the darker shape cut the horizon made him hope that it was real.

A tower.

It was a lone tower sticking up out of the sand, and from the way it was leaning a little suggested that it would be decrepit when they reached it. However, it was something other than sand, and would provide them with some shade while they decided what to do next.

Perhaps they would even find the owner of the mysterious voice there.

Someone pushed past his shoulder roughly.

“Let’s go,” Vaati said roughly, hiding the exhaustion in his voice. The teen’s face was beginning to turn a burnt red under the cowl, but still he continued onwards with a fiercely determined expression. Sheik followed closely behind him, the chains jangling loudly with each step.

They made no further conversation until they reached the tower that they had seen from the top of the dune in order to conserve energy. The walk had been a lot farther than it initially seemed, and several times Sheik had thought that they would never make it. If even one of them collapsed, then the other wouldn’t reach their goal as well, since the chain between them was thick and impossible to break. Several times Sheik worried that Vaati, who had a physical build that was frailer than average, would fall, but each time he even looked at him to offer help he was returned with an annoyed glower. Progress was slow with the sand slipping under their feet, and when they finally made it to the tower both of them fell under its shade in relief. Just as Sheik had predicted, the tower was in ruins with no sign of anyone living there. Even so, they couldn’t have been happier to escape the harsh sun, and they leaned against the refreshingly cool stone beneath the tower’s shadow.

When Sheik glanced beside him, he thought he even saw a crack of a genuine smile on Vaati’s face. It surprised him after seeing nothing but the most annoyed frowns on his companion’s face for most of the day.

The smile didn’t last long, however. A voice, _the_ voice that had spoken to them earlier, could be heard from somewhere above them. Both Sheik and Vaati jumped immediately to their feet, ready to fight or to run as they searched for the origin of the voice.

_“Sheik and Vaati. I have been expecting you.”_

Sheik caught a glimpse of a figure standing at the top of the broken tower, two stories above them on the crumbling white stone. They dropped down, or rather floated down, and they slowed their descent just before their feet touched the ground.

The owner of the voice wasn’t human. They stood upright like a human, about as tall as a grown man, but their head was the head of a black canine. Similar to a… Keeton?

Sheik wasn’t sure how he knew what a Keeton was, but apparently some of his memories were intact, just buried away in confused depths.

But yes, a black Keeton. Their large, searching eyes were yellow like the sun, and their pointed ears poked out from holes cut into the white hood that covered their head. The creature wore the clothes of a desert traveler, loose and held together with some leather belts with small inventory pouches hanging from them. Ornate, jeweled gold rings decorated its furry tail.

_“No doubt you have questions,”_ it said, its voice reverberating through the air. 

“Where do I even begin?” Vaati said, his patience running thin and sarcasm lining every word. Beneath his bravado, however, there was a barely noticeable hesitation in his voice, and Sheik was relieved to know that he hadn’t been the only one to be unnerved by this creature.

There was something about it that just… wasn’t right. And he didn’t mean it in the sense that the creature wasn’t human, but a gut feeling that they were a bad sign. Sheik’s instincts were telling him to run far, far away from this thing, whatever it was. Boring yellow eyes swerved towards him, and Sheik froze in place. Still hovering in the air, the creature tilted its head, seemingly amused by the fact that it had unnerved the two youths.

“ _This place is called the Valley of the Dead,”_ it continued, _“A barren place that stretches beyond the Gerudo Desert.”_

“Who are you?” Vaati demanded.  

The creature didn’t seem to take any offense by Vaati’s forceful tone. The way it carried itself made Sheik think of how a god might stand before mortals, as though it didn’t care of the opinion of lesser creatures. All of a sudden, Sheik had an unpleasant, passing thought. What if this thing really _was_ a god? It certainly held itself like one, and there was something about the way it casually floated in the air that seemed to say that it was a creature with hidden power. Did gods really walk among mortals? Would anyone know if they did? Either way, Sheik prayed that they weren’t enemies.

_“I am Thuban. I am always the first to welcome all those who wander here. I am also tasked to help you find a way out.”_

Sheik didn’t allow himself to relax, but he tried to find some comfort in the fact that Thuban claimed that they were there to help them. He didn’t sense any deceit in Thuban’s words, though he kept some level of caution. After all, there was no saying that the way ‘out’ would lead them somewhere better than this empty desert.

“Thuban,” Sheik addressed the foxlike creature. He tried to ignore the lump rising in his throat when the yellow orbs swerved towards him again like it was peering into his soul. “Why don’t we remember anything, and why are we chained together like this?”

All this time, Thuban hadn’t revealed much expression aside from a small glimmer of amusement. Now, however, their lips pulled back revealing rows and rows of pointed teeth of gleaming gold. Sheik could only describe Thuban’s grin as demonic; there was just something unsettling about it that he couldn’t quite put a finger to.  

_“All those who come here have come here for a reason,”_ Thuban chuckled, teeth clacking together as they laughed. _“Those who walk the Valley of the Dead come here seeking answers. They will find them at the end of their journey.”_

“Tell us now,” Vaati cut in, not amused by Thuban’s obvious evasiveness. Sheik had to admit that Vaati was brave to continue prodding the mysterious creature like that. Brave, or recklessly foolish.  

“ _I cannot,”_ Thuban replied simply.

“You can’t or you _won’t_?”

Thuban’s disturbing grin stretched wider. _“The truth will be granted to those who deserve it. Follow the path, and the truth will come to you.”_ Without warning, they whirled around in a circle, and a hooked golden cane appeared in their hands. Sheik and Vaati flinched when Thuban tapped the backs of their hands with the cane.

There was a tingling sensation where the cane had touched him, and Sheik cautiously looked at the back of his hand to see a gold glowing compass etched into his skin. One of the directional needles of the compass glowed brighter than the others, and the one that was brighter changed depending on which way he pointed his hand. Vaati, too, had the same glowing compass on his hand as well.

It was indicating a particular direction.

Before they could ask the creature any more questions, Thuban, still with their unsettling grin, faded and vanished into the air leaving behind only their voice. By the time the voice disappeared, the two teens were left wondering if any of what they had seen and heard had been real. The only proof they had that Thuban had existed was the glowing compass on both of their hands.

_“You have both come here, together, for a reason. The answer you seek is beyond the desert.”_

_“Be warned that the answer you find may not be one you like.”_


	2. The Grand Scribe's Book

_The one-eyed demon had power to rival the goddesses themselves. Consumed with anger and arrogance, it turned to challenge them, waging war on their creations to prompt them to appear and stop it, if they dared. With the very winds at their command, they appeared to be unstoppable._

_The goddesses did not appear. In desperation, a Princess called for a Hero wielding The Four Sword, a champion of the goddesses, to stop the demon._

_The sword split the hero's soul in four. They confronted the demon at its lair, the Palace of Winds. The palace floated in the sky, as though to claim the heavens as the goddesses had done._

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Sheik and Vaati stumbled inside the broken tower, what's left of it a hollow column with sunlight seeping through the opening where there had once been a roof. Eroded by the sand, the top of the tower had crumbled off until what was left of it looked like a hand reaching desperately to the sky, begging for escape. Vaati, who had been more affected by the sun, sat down immediately in the refreshing shade, leaning his head back against the cool stone. Sheik, however, was curious about the tower and explored as much as the length of the chain between them would allow. He stepped carefully over the tower debris, hopping over some of the larger chunks of stone that had fallen inside.

He paused where the sunlight shone the brightest through the debris. Before him was a carved statue, centuries old from the way it was cracked and broken, leaning against the wall of the tower. It was tall, about fifteen feet in height, and it was a statue of a robed woman with her hands in front of her in prayer. Wings were folded behind her back, and there was something about it that made him feel at ease. Perhaps in the memories he'd lost, he'd seen something like it before. There was a plaque with writing on it at its base. _Goddess Statue_ , he read.

Something near the plaque caught his eye.

"I found provisions!" Sheik exclaimed, and he began to turn around to let Vaati know. The pale teen's eyes shot open and he bounced onto his feet with energy he hadn't had before, and rushed over to where Sheik was.

"Where?" Vaati demanded, but Sheik was already making his way towards where he'd found what could possibly help them survive a little longer in the unforgiving desert.

What waited them was a generous offering. There were two piles of food and water, clearly set up in a way that was meant for the two of them. Each pile included a large canteen full of water, as well as fresh fruits, some dried meat that they would be able to bring with them for their next leg of the journey, and a loaf of bread, freshly baked from the way it filled the chamber with its hearty aroma.

Thirsty and starving, the two boys didn't exchange any words to each other as they rushed towards a pile each and began wolfing down the offering. Sheik wondered briefly if they should have been cautious about poisoning, or if the food and water were a trap, but he was too exhausted and hungry to care. The peaches melting into his mouth, their juices soaking his parched throat: it was enough to make him forget about all of the questions he'd had about this strange barren world and his mysterious companion.

However, neither hunger nor food are infinite, and eventually there came a time when his stomach felt full, his throat was quenched, and he filled the empty leather bag nearby with the leftover food. The questions began to return, as did his sense of uneasiness. Only one person came to mind who'd left them the provisions: Thuban. It cemented the fact that the mysterious Keaton intended to help them, as they'd claimed, but Sheik still couldn't shake the suspicion that they weren't entirely on their side.

He looked up to see what the lavender haired boy was doing. Vaati was gazing at the back of his hand where the compass Thuban had burned into them glowed. He scratched at it with his other hand from time to time, and turned his compass hand in different directions, testing how the arrows along it moved, always fixating on a certain direction.

"Find anything?" Sheik asked, standing up and making his way towards Vaati. He was glad that his companion looked livelier and more energetic now that they'd rested a little, since earlier he'd looked like he was going to pass out from exhaustion. The teen looked up, brushing away his long bangs that had fallen over his face.

"Not really. If this mark on our hand serves as some kind of compass, though, our next destination is that way," he said, standing up and slinging his canteen and bag of food over his shoulder. He hopped down from the rock he'd been sitting on, the chain around his ankles rattling loudly. Without any respect for personal space, Vaati reached out for Sheik's right hand and pulled it roughly towards him.

"Hey!" Sheik said, trying to pull away, but the other's grip was firm. Vaati ignored him, and instead spent a few seconds comparing the compass on Sheik's hand to his. He waved Sheik's hand around, similar to what he'd been doing earlier, and this time Sheik allowed him, though not without an annoyed grumble. Satisfied, Vaati let go of his hand.

"Both of our marks are pointing in the same direction," he said. Then, he looked around at the broken walls of the tower around them until his eyes settled on one side, where the walls had crumbled into something similar to stairs. It led up to a preserved alcove near the top, where Thuban had been perched earlier. He cocked his head towards them. "Want to take a look?"

Sheik nodded, and made his way up the fallen rocks after Vaati. The other boy was surprisingly nimble, and climbed up the broken wall quickly. Sheik followed just as quickly, with movements so natural it was almost like he'd done this sort of thing countless times before.

The view at the top of what remained of the tower was as depressing as Sheik had expected it would be. They could see nothing for miles and miles around them except sand, with endless rolling dunes that dipped and rose like stagnant waves. There was no sign of life anywhere, except for the occasional flicker of movement in the horizon, though it was questionable whether the movements were real, or were mirages.

While Vaati shaded his eyes, peering out in the direction the compass marked as their next destination, Sheik walked around the tower alcove. There was space enough for two people to lie flat on the floor, and there was a rectangular hole cut on one side of the wall to serve as a window. Sheik held his breath: there was a small ornate wooden box, decorated in gold accents, beneath the window. He almost missed it since it had been shoved aside in the corner, hidden in the shadows and half buried in the sand that had blown inside.

"Look at this," Sheik said, motioning Vaati to come over. He dusted the sand away from its lid and brought it over to Vaati who'd joined him with a questioning look on his face.

"You think it's that fox's?"

Sheik's thumb rubbed along the engraving that had been carved on the lid of the box. The engraving was of two circles, one inside the other so that it looked like an eye, and two feathers curled on either side of it. "I don't know," he replied. His suspicions told him that it belonged to a different creature than Thuban, a creature that had some relation to the eye and the feathers. His fingers paused just above the latch that held the box closed.

Then, he flipped it open.

Vaati and Sheik both jolted up when the sky suddenly darkened. The sun, which had been directly overhead, had rapidly completed its trek along the sky, almost as though time had sped up. The temperature dropped abruptly, the wind bringing in the desert night chill rather than the scorching heat.

The two boys exchanged bewildered glances. "What just happened?" Vaati whispered.

Sheik cautiously moved back away from the alcove to the broken part of the wall to look outside at the desert. Bright, beautiful stars glittered overhead in a cloudless black sky. "It's night," he said, shocked.

Vaati walked back to the box that they'd opened. "At least now it'll be better than walking under the blazing sun," he said over his shoulder. From inside the box he pulled out a book, bound in red canvas and framed in gold. On the cover was the same symbol that had been etched into the box.

"Grand Scribe," Vaati read aloud, and then pointed to the words written bellow the symbol to show Sheik. The words were printed in curled, fancy script of delicate gold. "I think you're right that this isn't Thuban's."

"You're sure it isn't dangerous?" Sheik asked uncertainly when Vaati placed his hand on the edge of the book, getting ready to open it. After all, opening the box that had contained it had suddenly turned night to day. Although Sheik didn't remember much of anything, he didn't need his memories to know that whatever just happened wasn't natural or right.

"Could be," Vaati admitted. Then, he added while chewing on his lip thoughtfully, "I kind of want to read it, though."

"I don't like it."

Vaati flashed a grin, slightly crooked and mischievous. "You're not stopping me, though," he observed.

Sheik blinked, and then returned a grumble in response. Vaati was right. His gut told him they shouldn't open the book, but he was extremely curious about what it contained, and if Vaati was going to be the one to do the dirty work then he wasn't feeling inclined to stop him. He crossed his arms over his chest, and watched his companion warily as Vaati flipped open the book.

Thankfully, nothing dramatic happened, and both of them released the breath they'd been holding.

"Well, what's in it?" Sheik asked.

Vaati thumbed through the pages, turning them over and over and then flipping through them quickly. "Nothing," he finally said in surprise. Irritably, he went backwards and forwards through the blank pages, refusing to believe that such an important looking book contained nothing in it. Just as he was about to give up, both of them caught the color of black ink staining the previously white pages in the beginning of the book. Vaati froze, while Sheik leaned closely over his shoulder, and the two of them watched as words slowly appeared on the very first page of the book. The ink twisted and curled, almost like an invisible author was writing them as they read them.

"The tower is where the journey begins, the first sanctuary in the desert. Those who have lost all they had will wander here to find answers," Sheik read aloud from over Vaati's shoulder.

"Doesn't tell us anything new from what that fox told us," Vaati muttered, annoyed, but he continued to stare intently at the pages, curious about what else they might reveal.

"Follow the Shepherd of the Sands, the Arbiter of the Wastes. Only those deserving the truth will find the answers they seek."

"Shepherd of the Sands?" Vaati asked. "Arbiter? You think it's talking about Thuban?"

Sheik shrugged, and continued to read the flowing text. "Beware, a serpent guards the sands of silver, and sleeps in grains of gold. It spares those with gentle hearts, and devours evil souls. Let sinners fear the starry skies"

The two of them waited silently for more guidance from the book in Vaati's hands, but after a while it became clear that that was all it was going to impart on them for the time being. Vaati leaned back as he closed the book, and sighed. "Well, that's new I suppose," he said. "What do you think it means?" He turned around to see that Sheik had walked back towards the broken wall to look out at the desert again. His red eyes were intense and piercing as he gazed out at the night, searching.

"There's a serpent that's awake during the night, asleep during the day," he replied.

"You don't think this is literal, do you?" Vaati asked with a scoff. As skeptical as he was, however, he still joined Sheik to look out at the silver sands described in the book. "Do you actually think there's a snake out there that can tell if you're evil or not, and eats people who it thinks are bad?" he snorted. His scornful expression, however, began to waver when he noticed Sheik's shoulders tense beside him.

Sheik had seen something in the previously empty desert. Even before he pointed at the shadow, Vaati saw it, too, and he nearly dropped the book in surprise. Speechless, they both stared at the sands that were undeniably shifting in the distance.

Miles away, they saw some of the dunes collapse, something gigantic moving below them. One after the other, the dunes moved, slithering almost. And then, before it vanished like a desert mirage, the silhouette of a titanic serpent arched its head out of the sand before it dove back into the ground.

The two boys were completely silent for a while, stunned by what they'd just seen. They looked at each other as though to confirm that they weren't the only ones who'd seen the creature. Vaati opened his mouth for some kind of snappy comment, but he found none. Likewise, Sheik looked like he was having trouble finding something coherent to say.

Sheik judged the head of the serpent to be about as large as a small mountain. The serpent wasn't an ordinary serpent - there was no way that what they saw was simply one of the local fauna. It had to be a god of some sort, at least a powerful spirit. And if it was, then maybe it really was capable of passing judgment on prior deeds. He glanced at Vaati again, who'd sat back down on the cold hard stone and was resting his chin on his hands, glaring down at the book that was sitting on his lap. While the sighting of the serpent had been brief, it had been enough to convince the both of them that the advice written in the pages of the Grand Scribe's book was worth considering.

If they weren't 'sinners,' then the book assured them that they could walk the desert at night without fear of the snake, away from the scorching sun. However, the problem was that neither he nor Vaati remembered anything of their past. They could have done something extremely evil in the past, but they had no way of knowing right now.

Sheik's eyes narrowed as he observed the pale haired youth critically. Because they were chained together, if even one of them had done something that could be considered evil, then both of them would be devoured by the serpent that guarded the night. For all he knew, Vaati could be someone with a dark past.

For all he knew, the same could be said of himself.

Vaati, who'd come to the same conclusion as Sheik, stood up slowly. He tried to sound unperturbed by this turn of events, but there was a tremor in his voice that he couldn't hide. "Let's just… let's stay here until sunrise," he said. He handed the Grand Scribe's book to Sheik, like he'd had enough of it and wanted to be rid of it for now.

Sheik nodded and took the book in his hands. He looked back at the mysterious desert one last time before following Vaati down to the bottom of the tower. Once again he was haunted by the questions whose answers he was sure would elude them for a while.

Who were they?

And what were they doing here?

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

When they'd made their way back down to the foot of the tower, they'd found to their surprise a campfire waiting for them by the statue of the woman. The scraps of food, like the fruit skins, that they'd left near the statue had been cleared, and even some blankets had been lain across the sand near the fire. Sheik hadn't heard anyone setting up camp while they'd been up on the alcove, and he found the welcome fire unnerving. It was almost like they were being watched, though he figured it shouldn't have been much of a surprise. Thuban was probably watching them now. Or maybe even this Grand Scribe? If it _was_ Thuban's doing, he wished that the Keaton would help them directly instead, such as telling them the answers the fox undoubtedly knew.

 _Arbiter of the Wastes_ … Sheik recalled what had been written in the book. _But what are they judging?_

_Those deserving the truth._

_Is that what they are judging? If we deserve the truth? But how do we prove that we are deserving?_

"Hey."

Sheik looked to his left where Vaati was lying on his blanket near the fire.

"I… need you to do me a favor."

Sheik set aside the Grand Scribe's book that he'd been turning over in his hands and looked at his companion in concern. Vaati had spoken little since they had seen the desert serpent, and the way he spoke hesitantly now worried him. He waited patiently to hear whatever it was that Vaati wanted to ask.

"Describe my face."

Sheik blinked, wondering if there was more to the request than that. It seemed simple and innocent enough, and he smiled behind the cloth wrapped around his neck when he saw Vaati turn slightly away sheepishly. It was a refreshingly normal, human thing to see after the strange events of the day.

"In as much detail as you can," Vaati continued, his words a little mumbled, "I don't remember what I look like. I want to know."

Sheik hadn't thought about it himself, but until Vaati mentioned it, it was true that he didn't know what he looked like himself. He knew nothing about himself or his past, though he supposed his lithe yet athletic build suggested he'd trained physically before. He spent a few seconds working through Vaati's features thoughtfully. Vaati had rolled over on his side to face him, waiting patiently for his request.

"You have red eyes," Sheik began slowly, "they're kind of slanted, like a cat's."

Vaati scowled, "I dislike cats." Then, his eyes widened briefly before he burst out laughing, a cynical chuckle that echoed against the tower walls. "Funny how we don't remember anything about who we are, but we can remember pointless details like hating cats, hmm?" he mused aloud, and then waved his hand for Sheik to continue. "So I have red eyes. Like a cat's. What else?"

"You have black marks under your eyes, like sickles," he said, and demonstrated by running his fingers over his own face where the black marks on Vaati's face was. "Your nose is on the small side, with a gentle slope that curves from your brows. Your eyebrows are like dots."

"Dots." Vaati repeated, unimpressed.

Sheik's face flushed. He was trying his best to describe someone's face, and he was finding it to be a surprisingly personal exercise that was making him feel uncomfortable. "I mean that they're short," he corrected himself while Vaati looked at him skeptically, "Look, if you just feel them yourself you should be able to tell that they end just past the center of your eye."

"I know I can feel my face. I want you to _describe them._ "

Sheik took a deep breath and held back a sigh. "Alright," he said, "I've noticed that you have a tendency to scowl, like you're doing now. Your eyebrows are almost always turned downwards, stern and sloped. There are some creases, thin lines between them that suggest you glare at others frequently. Your lips are pale, like your skin, and thin, though perhaps it's because they are often pulled down into that troubled frown you wear."

"Good, good, that's better," Vaati grinned, pleased. A sly glint appeared in his eyes. "Keep going. Jawline."

Sheik paused, trying to figure out what more to say about his companion's face. Even though it was by request that he was talking about his features, describing someone's face in detail felt like he'd spent too much time obsessing over them. And the more he stared at the details of Vaati's face, trying to find the nuances and particulars that distinguished him, the more he felt an intruding thought burrowing into his head.

_I guess he's… kind of handsome._

It felt oh so personal and he could feel his ears reddening. "Slanted," he said, swatting the thought away and trying not to choke on his words.

"That's the best you can do? Draw me in the sand."

He'd been about to grudgingly comply, when he finally realized that Vaati was trying to hold back laughter. He tossed sand in his face, annoyed, and went back to study the Grand Scribe's book that he'd been reading earlier. "Ass," he shot irritably while Vaati laughed at him.

"You were trying so hard, I had to," he chuckled. Then he sat up, brushing aside some of the sand that had gotten into his hair and on his face. He pushed back his hood, and ran his fingers down his long, pale purple hair to brush out the tangles. "I did mean it when I said I wanted you to describe me, however. At least I know more about myself now than before."

Sheik grunted in response, still upset about being laughed at. He'd forced his expression to one of stern concentration, the only trace of his earlier embarrassment his red-tinged ears sticking out from his cowl.

"I can show you what I mean when I say 'descriptive,'" Vaati suggested.

Sheik ignored him.

"Wouldn't you like to know more about yourself?"

Sheik's ears twitched. Slowly, he looked up from the book he'd been studying. Vaati was sitting across from him by the fire, watching him lazily but with a hint of a smirk on his face. It was a smirk that said that he knew Sheik wouldn't refuse.

 _Ass,_ he thought again, but he appreciated the offer. After all, he didn't know what he looked like, either. Looking at his hands, he could tell he had sun-touched skin, and the hair that was pulled back in a braid indicated that he was blond. That's all he knew, really. Sheik nodded slowly, and Vaati leaned forward to take a better look at him.

"Your eyes are red, crimson like blood. There's a ferocity to them, of someone who isn't afraid to stand and fight for what they believe is right. I would say that you're in your late teens or early twenties, but the deep creases along the corners of your eyes and across your forehead speak of burdens that no ordinary teen would experience," he said, his voice slow and deliberate. "They carry a deep wisdom beyond your years. Your brows are thick, the opposite of _dots_ ," he added, referring to Sheik's earlier failure to be properly descriptive.

Sheik, however, was more preoccupied by the fact that Vaati was doing with ease what he'd struggled with earlier, confident without showing a hint of embarrassment.

"- and they remind me of a warrior. You can trust the fighting spirit behind eyebrows like those. Your nose though, dainty. Delicate. Feminine, even. Your lips, too. Small, rounded. It's a bit stern, like you're holding back your words until you know exactly what you want to say, such as that rude word you called me earlier. They're dark, touched by the sun like the rest of your skin, but there's a soft, warm pink hue." Suddenly, Vaati's lips pulled back into a sly grin. It hadn't gone past his notice that Sheik's ears were crimson, and he was enjoying messing with his companion a little too much. "Many would find them kissable, I'm sure," he added.

They stared at each other. Vaati, waiting eagerly for a reaction. Sheik, determined not to give him any.

"Flatterer," the blond finally sighed exasperatedly.

"I can read palms, too, if you like."

"Bullshit."

Vaati chuckled, and then lay back on his blanket to look up at the stars above them. "Just testing how gullible you are," he said.

"Go to sleep," Sheik groaned. "I'll take first shift."

Silence settled over the two of them once more, with Vaati closing his eyes, a grin on his face as he fell asleep, and Sheik facing the entrance of the tower for any potentially dangerous visitors. Though he'd told his companion to leave him alone, he found himself missing the company. Although being chained together with a stranger wasn't something he would consider ideal, he was glad that he didn't have to be alone in this vast, lonely desert. He wondered again if he could remember ever knowing anyone like Vaati, but he was unable to. Still, he had a nagging feeling that they _must_ have known each other, once. The way Thuban had spoken of them sounded like he and Vaati had crossed paths once. Why else would two complete strangers end up chained together in the middle of a desert? They must have known each other.

Sheik listened to the soft crackle of the fire and Vaati's soft breathing. He'd apparently already fallen asleep. Unsurprising, considering how exhausted he'd been after the trek under the sun earlier. If it weren't for the threat of the serpent, they would have traveled during the cooler night rather than brave the burning sun.

The eerie sound of shifting sands in the distance reminded Sheik that the serpent was very much still out there.

He opened the red canvas book again, and ran his fingers over the black ink that had appeared in the first page. He wondered who the Grand Scribe was, and their connection to Thuban. He wondered about Thuban's motivations in guiding them across the desert, and he wondered what his own connection was to Vaati. He remembered how Thuban had told them that they both came here for a reason; what could it be?

_Let sinners fear the starry skies._

He hadn't told Vaati this, earlier, but as Vaati had described him to appear aged with experience beyond his years, so, too, did Vaati appear. His eyes, red, had glowed with fire buried deep within, perhaps buried with the memories that he'd lost. It was the eyes of someone who'd seen things no one ever should, the tired yet burning eyes of someone who'd lived through extreme trials.

Sheik peered out into the desert. For a few seconds, he thought he saw the looming shadow of the desert serpent turn in his direction, staring back at him. It sent chills down his spine, and his muscles were tense, ready to shake Vaati awake if it turned out that the snake had actually found them. However, it turned around, burying itself into the dunes and giving no indication that it had noticed them.

He breathed deeply.

Maybe they were both here because they had done wrong in their past.


	3. The Sealed Well

_The hero was supposed to win. Fate has always ruled that those favored by the goddesses will prevail. However, the demon had power to rival those of lesser gods. They overcame Fate's ruling with overwhelming rage and defeated the hero._

_The hero was no more._

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Music. A lullaby.

_It's beautiful._

Sheik looked around, searching for the music. His vision was blurred and unfocused, but little by little the details began to become clearer. He was sitting in the middle of a beautiful garden, full of spring flowers that bloomed in vibrant colors. Birdsong was mixed with the trickle of a fountain nearby, and iridescent blue butterflies carelessly drifted in the wind. One of them landed on the golden harp that he'd been playing.

The lullaby stopped when he realized that he'd been the one playing it. In surprise, he stared at the harp in his hands, startled by the tune. He hummed the tune softly, picking up where he'd left off.

_The ballad of the goddess._

He lifted his satin-gloved fingers again to the string. They seemed to know what to do, and they began to play the lullaby once more. He closed his eyes, getting lost in the music once more. A voice whispered to him as he played. A young woman. He had a feeling he knew her. She sounded sad, but hopeful.

 _Caged bird, you're trapped here within these white walls,_ she whispered.

_Your wings are clipped, you want to fly._

_Lose yourself to the music, escape this unbearable world._

Footsteps approached him, and he opened his eyes as the woman's voice drifted away. His vision was blurred again and he couldn't see their face, but somehow he already knew that they were a servant to the castle.

 _Castle? How do I know that?_ he wondered.

The servant called them by name, and a heavy feeling weighed down his chest. He sighed and rose, and the harp tinkled to a stop as he put it away. He was needed again, they told him. He followed after them with a heavy heart. Something terrible had happened.

The name.

What was the name that the servant had called him by? It hadn't sounded like 'Sheik.' In fact, he was convinced it hadn't been 'Sheik.'

He reached out towards the faceless servant. He needed to ask them.

What was his name?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sheik. _Sheik!_ "

Sheik's eyes fluttered open at the sound of his name. When his eyes focused, he found himself face to face with a rather angry looking Vaati. Sheik blinked a few more times, and then jolted awake, almost bumping foreheads with his pale-haired companion. Daylight was streaming through the broken walls of the crumbling tower. The campfire had long since burned out to ashes.

"Whatever happened to taking first shift?" Vaati threw his hands up in the air, outraged. "I wake up to find that night has already passed, and that you'd fallen asleep! We were lucky that nothing wandered in here and decided to eat us while we slept."

Sheik stared at him, dumbfounded, and his surprised expression only seemed to irritate Vaati more. Vaati paced around, the chain around his ankles rattling against the rocks and scraping against the sand as he did so. Meanwhile, Sheik tried to remember just what had happened last night, and his brows furrowed in confusion.

He remembered telling Vaati that he was going to take first shift. He hadn't even been particularly tired. The last thing he remembered before he'd lost his sense of the desert was a presence joining him by the campfire. It had arrived quietly like a wind, and it caused the light of the fire to flicker out so that only the dark of the night remained. He didn't remember feeling any sort of alarm as it swept into the tower, and instead he remembered an almost peaceful sense of relief as it embraced him, beckoning his eyes to close and fall into a deep sleep.

He looked at Vaati again and opened his mouth to explain, but then he closed it again and shook his head. He didn't know how to explain what had happened without making it sound crazy. And truth be told, he didn't even know if he'd imagined the presence, and that he'd simply fallen asleep because he'd been careless. "I'm sorry," he said, though he couldn't hide the puzzlement in his tone.

Vaati sighed, and then shook his head dismissively. "Next time, _I'll_ take first shift," he said. Then, he stuck a thumb in the direction of the desert. "Anyways, get ready. Let's get a move on for our next destination. I'd rather reach the next spot before the sun gets too hot, and we don't know how far of a walk it's going to be."

Sheik nodded, and stood up and stretched. The two of them did a sweep of the tower to make sure they hadn't missed anything important or helpful, and checked what they had packed one last time. Gathering their canteens and the Scribe's book, and chewing on the leftover dried meats, Sheik and Vaati stepped out of the shade of the tower to make their way across the desert sands.

They made slow but steady progress across the dunes. The sand was difficult to walk on as their boots sunk into the loose foothold, and though they hurried somewhat out of fear of the rising sun that would only grow hotter as the day progressed, they were careful not to go too fast and exhaust themselves.

Once the tower behind them was out of sight, all they had was their faith in their compass that they were, indeed, moving in the right direction. Even their footsteps were blown away by the wind, and there were no landmarks in the empty desert for them to judge their progress. They could have been walking around in circles, but they couldn't know for sure. At one point Vaati joked that Thuban could very well have given them a faulty compass and was laughing at them now. Sheik told him to keep comments like that to himself.

Eventually, something other than sand entered their field of vision, and the two of them would have bolted towards it if it weren't for the fact that they were both completely exhausted. The sun had reached the highest point in the day, and both of their canteens were nearly empty.

Approaching it revealed the broken remnants of a town, long since abandoned and half-buried in the sand where the desert had consumed it. The stone walls of the houses were smooth from being eroded by the wind and sand, and the tiles of the roof that had once been blue were now faded of color.

"What kind of people would decide to live in a desert like this?" Vaati wondered scornfully as they walked between what was left of the buildings.

Sheik ducked into one of the buildings that was half-buried in the sand. Dried pieces of wood from a broken table stuck out from the ground. He ran his hand over the rough surface of a tapestry, so faded now that it was impossible to tell what kind of picture it used to display. "Maybe this place wasn't always a desert," he said quietly. He picked up a broken pottery fragment from a ruined shelf along the wall, and then tossed it aside. "Let's search and see if Thuban left us with anything here."

They went from house to house, checking every corner for any sign of something they could use to help them survive. After a while, Sheik felt a tug on his ankle's chains, and he turned to see Vaati pointing away from the dilapidated houses and towards some carved stones that were sticking out of the sand.

Gravestones.

"Let's check there," he said.

Sheik frowned. "I don't know…"

"Just a quick look. I have feeling there's something there."

Sheik followed his companion who made a beeline towards the largest gravestone out of the rows of stones that were sticking out from the ground. They were all slanted where they stood like they were slowly being consumed by the sand, except for the tallest one in the center. It stood straight, like it was protected against the desert by some unknown force. There was no name engraved on the tombstone.

"Here."

Sheik walked over to join Vaati, who was crouched before the tombstone. In front of him, stuck on the stone, was a blank piece of paper that somehow hadn't been blown away by the wind.

Vaati peeled the paper off the tomb and flipped it backwards and forwards, trying to see if there was anything special about it. Then, he waved a hand towards Sheik's bag. "Pass me that book we found." He took the red and gold book of the Grand Scribe from Sheik, and then opened it to the second page, behind the first one that was inked. Experimentally, he placed the new blank piece of paper into the book, and waited for something to happen.

At first, it didn't look like anything was going to happen. As they waited patiently, however, ink began to bloom on the pages, revealing words that had been invisible before. The two of them read the passage to themselves as it filled the torn page in curled writing:

_May travelers find respite in the second sanctuary of the desert._

_Here lies Kakariko Village, a town that once provided shelter to those who sought it. It provided a home to the Tribe Betrayed, and a home to the ones less fortunate. It welcomes those of all pasts, both noble and wicked. May you find sanctuary here._

The two of them digested the words for a few seconds, each trying to process what the book spoke of. Then, they exchanged glances and then looked back at the half-buried buildings behind them.

"I don't think it was always a desert here," Sheik murmured, gazing out at what was left of Kakariko Village. Beside him, Vaati nodded gravely.

The two of them made their way back towards the village, away from the graveyard. They continued their search for anything that Thuban may have left them.

It didn't take them long after to find that someone, most likely the black desert Keaton, had left them with provisions again. It was sitting in the middle of town, just beyond the broken blades of what had once been an impressive windmill. The provisions were below the shade of a small tent that had been propped over a well. One pile of provisions was lying on the sand beside the well, with similar contents to what had been left for them before: one large canteen of water, and a bag full of fresh food. The other, however, was hanging inside the bucket that waved precariously over the well.

Sheik had a bad feeling about the way it creaked in the wind.

Vaati, however, seemed more relieved than cautious at the sight of the provisions. He drank the last of the water from his canteen and tossed it over his shoulder, and then went over to reach the new one in the well's bucket. "Perfect. My water was just about gone."

As soon as his fingers touched the new canteen, there was the sound of snapping rope, and the bucket fell down the well along with the provisions. There was an awkward silence while both Sheik and Vaati stared blankly at where the food and water had once been, and then they both winced at the sound of the bucket smashing against the ground below them. Sheik walked over and craned his neck down the well.

"Before you say anything, that wasn't my fault," Vaati hissed between his teeth.

Sheik reassured him. "I think that was meant to happen," he said. He shaded his eyes from the sun to better look at the darkness of the bottom of the well. Then, he pointed at an object glowing next to where the bucket had fallen. "What's that down there?" he asked.

"Din damned if I know," Vaati muttered, plopping himself down on the sand next to the well. He couldn't be bothered to look at whatever it was that Sheik had found when he was upset about the provisions they'd lost. He glared bitterly at the remaining pile. "The two of us aren't going to last by sharing what's left. We barely made it here with two canteens of water."

"Agreed."

"Then why are you so calm about this? _!_ " Vaati snapped, whipping his head over to the blond angrily. To his surprise, Sheik had dropped his bags next to the well and had climbed up it. His legs were dangling in over the edge, and there were a few thuds as he kicked something wooden inside the well. A ladder.

"Let's get back the stuff we lost," Sheik explained, and then tugged at the chain between them. "Come on, it's too early to give up."

Vaati stood up and climbed up on the edge of the well, and then looked down at the darkness uncertainly. He bit his lip with a frown. "I wasn't giving up," he grumbled. Then, he added, "This looks a lot like a trap, you know." If the provisions hanging inside a bucket that immediately fell as soon as they approached wasn't suspicious enough, the ladder that led down into the well sure was. It was almost like someone wanted them to go down there.

"Agreed," Sheik repeated, "So let's do this quickly. We need those provisions to survive. I also saw something else down there, and I want to know what it was."

Vaati looked down into the well again. From where he was, it didn't look too far down. They could get in and out in about a minute. He could also see what it was that Sheik was talking about: next to the bag of provisions that had fallen down the well, there was a small purple object that glittered in the light. It was in the shape of a lens of some kind. "Fine," he said, and then swung his legs over to the ladder to join Sheik in his descent.

While the two boys made their way down the well, the Grand Scribe's book that had been left just outside it glowed faintly, almost as though it were distressed.

Sheik and Vaati had wrongfully assumed that the written ink in the book had stopped on the first side of the page they had found. If only they had flipped it over, they would have found a warning:

_A cursed creature was sealed within the well. May the journey end for those who are tempted by the treasure it guards._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"This is pretty spacious for a well, don't you think?" Vaati asked as they jumped down from the ladder. They hadn't been able to tell, earlier, but the bottom of the well had widened out into something that almost looked like a chamber of sorts. It was about ten feet wide in diameter near the bottom.

Vaati went over to pick up the provisions that had dropped down into the well, and he muttered under his breath as he did so, annoyed that it had fallen in the first place. Meanwhile, Sheik went over to take a look at the purple object they'd seen from the top.

The object was sitting on top of a rock, and it gleamed from the sunlight that fell across it. It was a large lens with a frame that made it look like an eye with a tear. Three red spikes decorated its top to make it look like the eye's lashes, and the lens was tinted red in the center, a pupil. Sheik reached out and touched it.

As soon as he did so, the walls around them began to rumble, pulling backwards and revealing an expansive darkness beyond. The ground shook, and Vaati nearly tripped as he hurriedly made his way over to Sheik.

"That wasn't-" Sheik began, but Vaati cut him off and began to drag him back to the ladder.

"That was _definitely_ your fault!" he shouted.

The two of them began to climb back up the ladder as fast as they could. Sheik closed his eyes, avoiding the sand that fell from the bottom of Vaati's boots as he followed his companion up the ladder, and he ignored the chain between them banging against his face as they dashed up to the surface. They were almost out of the well when an invisible force snapped the ladder in half, sending them falling back down into the abyss.

Sheik groaned, forcing himself up on his knees. His jaws clenched as he fought through the pain of the fall, and then reached over to where Vaati had fallen next to him. He crawled over and shook Vaati's shoulders. "Come on, get up," he said, and then pushed himself up onto his feet. His shoulder was burning where it had hit the ground, and his legs were shaking from the impact. He picked up the mysterious lens that had apparently triggered the well's trap, and then helped Vaati up on his feet. The pale haired teen coughed, winded from having the air knocked out of his lungs, and then his red eyes widened when they heard a low, thundering growl coming from somewhere above them.

The two boys backed away nervously, and they saw something invisible kick up the sand in the ground as it approached.

Whatever it was, it was big. And invisible.

And it sounded like it wanted to kill them.

"There goes our way out," Vaati said hoarsely, pointing out the broken ladder. It had been their only exit out of the well, and it had been shattered to pieces by the monster.

They were trapped.

"Look out!"

Sheik pushed Vaati out of the way just in time, tackling him to the ground. Within seconds, there was an explosive slam right where Vaati had been earlier, and sand sprayed in their faces from the impact. Before Vaati could catch his breath, he felt himself being pulled back in the other direction once more, and just in time, too, because another explosion rocked the earth near where he'd just been. "How did-" he gasped, and then saw Sheik looking intently through the lens he'd found in the well.

"I can see it through this," Sheik said, his voice slightly shaky from adrenaline. Though it was invisible to Vaati, Sheik could see through the lens an enormous abomination with leathery black skin, over fifteen feet in length. The creature had the body of a man, but where its legs should have been was replaced with an elongated spine that seemed to be attached somewhere in the ceiling of the far end of the well. Its wrists were severed and mangled, but its hands still seemed to follow the arms as though they were still attached.

Its face, however, was the most disturbing. Its flesh was peeled back at the neck, right where its head should have been, but the head was gone. Instead, a grotesque eye with dozens of glowing yellow pupils surrounding a larger one in the center, protruded from the flesh where its head should have been.

Sheik rapidly tried to think of their options, and what he came up with was discouraging.

The truth was, he didn't know how they would be able to beat this thing. Even if they did, they were still trapped here.

Perhaps being killed by this demon creature was faster and more merciful than dying of starvation and dehydration.

The creature roared, and the walls rumbled again, shaking down large rocks from the ceiling this time. Sheik and Vaati ran to avoid the falling debris, but it was difficult to do so with the ground shaking. As they ran, Sheik tried to keep an eye on the invisible monster.

_Oh no…_

"Vaati!" he cried, but he was too late to warn him. One of the creature's hands had swept towards them, and before Sheik could do anything, it had slammed against Vaati, sending him flying towards the other side of the well. Sheik was caught off balance by the chain that attached them both, and he was dragged across the sand to where Vaati had been thrown.

Struggling to remain conscious, Sheik lifted his aching head. The skin of his cheeks burned where the sand had scraped it, and he could barely lift himself up anymore. He tried to look for Vaati, but his body wasn't responding the way he wanted it to. He heard another growl nearby, almost directly over his head.

 _I suppose this is it,_ he thought sadly. _Shame we never got to find out who we are…_

He squeezed his eyes shut when another roar shook the walls, and he readied himself for the impact that he was sure to come. A deafening explosion pounded his ears and sand whipped up around them like a cloud.

And then…

Sheik dared to open his eyes. He opened one slowly, then the other, and then his eyes widened when he realized that he was still alive. More surprising was the now gurgled growls of a monster in pain, and the sand beside him moved like something was being dragged across its surface. He lifted his head gingerly, and was struck speechless by what he saw.

Vaati. It was Vaati.

He was floating in the air, one hand holding the magical lens to his eye and the other extended, charging up some kind of powerful energy sphere. He casually tossed the sphere towards the direction of the growls, and upon impact it gave another booming explosion.

Before Sheik could process just what, exactly, was going on, he felt himself picked up, cradled by winds, and lifted into the air along with the provisions that had fallen into the well. Soon enough they were back outside in the now-welcome glow of the sun. The blond stared blankly at Vaati who brushed sand off of his shoulders like nothing out of the ordinary had occurred just now.

The pale boy noticed Sheik staring at him, and he returned a cheeky grin. "It's too early to give up, hmm?" he asked, repeating Sheik's comment to him from earlier. He cackled at the blonde's expression, and then tossed the purple lens back towards him. "Here, keep it with that book."

Sheik found difficulty finding his voice again, partly because he was still beaten up by the monster in the well, and partly because he was still having difficulty processing what had just happened. "H-how…" he started, and then his voice died out. He tried again with a cough. "How-"

" _Excuse me."_

Without warning, a black Keaton materialized before them. Thuban extended his hands and flicked Vaati across the forehead, instantly knocking him out cold on the ground. Sheik rushed forward, only to fall immediately on his knees. The fight with the well-monster had taken a toll on him.

"Thuban, you bastard!" he growled, his lips pulled back into a grimace, "What did you do to him?"

The fox ignored him for a moment, their ringed tail twitching as they looked down at Vaati who was lying unconscious. Their face betrayed little emotion, but their ears flicked in a way that suggested that they were annoyed.

"Thuban," Sheik called again, dragging himself towards them. This time, he seemed to have caught the Keaton's attention. They turned their head slightly towards him, their golden eyes looking down at them severely.

" _Truth must be earned, and your companion_ ," they said, clacking their teeth together, " _remembered things that were not earned yet. I did not expect the Phantom Shadow Beast's blow to unlock his potential like that_."

Sheik went over Thuban's words in his head, and then became enraged when he realized what they were implying. "So you're the reason why we don't remember anything?" Sheik raised his voice, furious. "Why? _!_ Why are you doing this?"

The look Thuban returned to him was chilling, and Sheik wondered if he hadn't pressed the mysterious Keaton too far. After all, he had no idea what the creature was capable of, and despite their appearance, he had a feeling that they were more powerful than he could comprehend. Seeing that Sheik realized his mistake, Thuban's icy stare relaxed, and his lips pulled back into a fanged grin. " _You have not earned the answers to those questions, either."_ They knelt down beside Sheik and brushed a bandaged hand against his face in a strangely comforting gesture. Sheik wanted to shove their hand aside, but was frozen in place with what could only be described as an impressive aura. " _Continue on your path, and you will find the answers you seek. This I promise you."_ Then, Thuban stood up and walked back towards Vaati. They spent a few seconds looking him over like a craftsman evaluating the finishing touches of their project.

Sheik ground his teeth in frustration, and then took a deep breath. Being confrontational with the Keaton clearly wasn't going to work. He tried to keep his tone level and patient as he tried speaking to the fox again. "Please, give him his memories back, at least. He deserves the memories that were returned to him at the bottom of the well. He earned them. Perhaps he didn't earn them in the way you expected, but he earned them."

At this, Thuban's head swiveled around, and for the first time Sheik saw genuine surprise on the Keaton's face. Then they grinned that wide, creepy grin, their teeth flashing gold in the sun. " _Oh? Return memories of their magic? Do you think that's wise, Sheik?"_ they asked, and then they chuckled with their clacking laugh. The way they spoke his name was personal, almost, in the way one might address an old friend. They became more amused at Sheik's confusion, and they shook their head, snickering. " _I am trying to keep both you and your companion on equal power. One cannot have an… advantage… over the other. It keeps things balanced, you see. This is for your own good."_

"What does that even mean?" Sheik asked. _None of this makes sense._

" _You will see soon enough._ "

As Thuban made to leave, Sheik stopped him one more time. "Wait!" he shouted, though a part of him wondered if he was pressing his luck with the Keaton too far. Still, he didn't know when they would be able to catch Thuban again like this. This was his only chance. Boldly, he stood up on his feet and squared his shoulders. "I deserve to have at least one question answered, Arbiter of the Wastes" he said, stressing the word 'deserved,' a word that Thuban seemed to love. Using the title 'Arbiter' was a risk, since it wasn't clear what kind of relationship the Grand Scribe had with the Keaton, and it was also vague as to whether it really did refer to Thuban. Depending on the fox's answer, however, he could know for sure…

Thuban stared back at Sheik, their expression completely unreadable and unnerving from behind their cowl. They said nothing for several long, uncomfortable seconds, until Sheik began to wonder if he'd made a grave mistake. To his relief, however, Thuban seemed to find his boldness amusing, and threw their head back to laugh at the sky. They seemed to accept the title Arbiter, suggesting that they were indeed the Arbiter of the Wastes that was written in the Scribe's book.

" _Deserve. Deserve?"_ they repeated, turning the word over on their tongue. " _How insolent._ _Though, I suppose I can indulge you with one."_ They cocked their head towards Sheik, excited curiosity lighting up on their face. " _Find me in your next destination. If you are able to reach it and find me there, I will answer one, and only one question, and only if the question is a good one."_

Sheik nodded. While it was disappointing that they weren't guaranteed any straight answers from the Keaton, it was better than nothing. At least they were being given a chance.

Thuban disappeared, their voice drifting away like a desert mirage.

" _Make it count_ _."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Vaati awoke, the sun was already beginning to set, and it was clear that he had no memory whatsoever about what had happened at the bottom of the well. Upon questioning him, Sheik discovered that the last thing his companion remembered was getting slammed across the room by the Phantom Shadow Beast.

"So you're saying that the infuriating black fox appeared and saved us from the well?" Vaati asked for the twentieth time. He seemed incredulous that Thuban would go out of their way to save them, and Sheik couldn't blame him. After all, he wasn't entirely convinced that Thuban was helping them navigate the desert out of the goodness of their heart, and the words they'd exchanged earlier suggested that they were the reason why he and Vaati were in this goddess forsaken place without any memory of who they were.

Still, Sheik was disturbed by Thuban's comments regarding 'keeping the power between him and Vaati equal,' and how it was 'for his own good' that Vaati was forbidden from remembering magic.

He didn't understand what that meant, and why it would be bad for him if Vaati remembered magic since it had helped them against the monster, but there was something about the way Thuban had said it…

He didn't think Thuban was lying, and that was troubling.

And that was why Sheik decided to lie about Thuban helping them. "Yeah," he nodded slowly, "they got us out of the well."

Vaati chewed on a piece of bread that had been in one of the provision bags, and he stared at the ground in front of him with a difficult expression on his face. He didn't seem entirely convinced, but he couldn't think of any other way they could have gotten out of the well. "I don't like it," he eventually announced. He tossed a stick into the fire they'd made from the broken furniture they'd found in the deserted Kakariko village. The fire crackled in response as though to mirror Vaati's frustration.

Outside they could hear the dunes beginning to shift again in the distance, indicating the presence of the gigantic serpent. While the two of them had been nervous about it before, it didn't seem inclined to approach the village, and instead circled around it, miles and miles away. As long as they didn't step outside Kakariko during the night, they were safe.

"And we have to decide on just _one_ question to ask it?" Vaati continued, "Did they say that it was one question each, or one between the both of us?"

"One between us both," Sheik replied.

"Ugh." Vaati kicked another branch into the fire. He leaned back against the wall of the house that they had taken shelter in, and he tossed a hand in the air exasperatedly. "There are so many questions I don't even know where to start."

Despite it all, Sheik couldn't help but smile a little at his companion's vocal complaints. He was beginning to learn that Vaati had a tendency to complain dramatically about even the smallest things, and sometimes it was so overblown that it actually lightened up the heaviest atmospheres. Just earlier, for instance, Vaati had been making a big deal about the sand that had gotten into his boots. The way he'd argued in great detail about how he was going to cut up his boots into sandals the first chance they found a knife had been chuckle-worthy.

"I'm going to ask them why they deserve to exist in my presence," Vaati muttered unhappily.

"We have all night and most of tomorrow to figure out our question. Let's brainstorm," Sheik said. He reached for a bit of charcoal from the fire, and placed it on the ground next to him to wait for it to cool. Then, took out the Grand Scribe's book and began to flip through it for a blank page. While doing so, he noticed extra writing that they had missed earlier.

It was a warning regarding the well, and he groaned inwardly. _If only we'd seen that before…_ he thought. _We need to be more thorough next time._

He decided to wait to tell Vaati about it when he was in a better mood, however. The pale teen was still upset by what had happened at the well.

"We do not have all night," Vaati scoffed. "You're sleeping in an hour so you won't fall right back to sleep after I complete my first shift."

Sheik winced, remembering how he hadn't been able to stay awake long enough to take first shift of the night. "Right," he mumbled. Considering all the weird things that they had encountered in the desert so far, however, Sheik had a nagging suspicion that he hadn't simply fallen asleep because he'd been careless. It was very possible that there was something out there that had forced him to unconsciousness, but he wasn't sure.

And then there had been that strange, unusually vivid dream. He could still hear the melody of the lullaby, and feel the satin of the gloves he wore slide against his skin.

Vaati, unaware of Sheik's troubled thoughts, flashed him a grin, and he waved a hand at the charcoal that Sheik had retrieved earlier and the Grand Scribe's book. "We do still have an hour, however," he said, "Open that book, let's pry some answers out of that desert Keaton."


	4. The Gerudo Village

 

_The world fell to despair. Evil that had been hiding in the darkest reaches of Hyrule emerged with the hero's defeat, emboldened by the demon's victory. The land became ravaged as monsters destroyed the land, slowly remolding it into something twisted. The demon themself was driven to further madness, having nothing left to challenge, nothing left to strive for. It was clear that the goddesses would not answer them._

_Without purpose, the demon became more dangerous than ever. Tired of the screams of those the demon had terrorized, they decided to cleanse the world, and make it silent forever._

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Numb. He was numb.

Sheik could tell that the person in front of him was trying to tell him something, but he couldn't hear the words, nor could he really see their features. They were blurry and unfocused, but he wasn't worrying about that now.

He was more focused on the despair that consumed him, a sense of utter hopelessness.

So paralyzing was the feeling that he didn't know how long he stood there, unable to move, with his eyes open but unseeing. A thought plagued him. _I failed them,_ it accused.

A hand rested on his shoulder, gentle but firm. He looked up in surprise, and he was finally able to see the person who had been speaking to him earlier. It was a woman, middle-aged, with dark skin and white hair that was pulled back in a tight bun. Her strong, muscled arms suggested she was a warrior, and the scars that marred her skin spoke of the battles she'd survived. There was an emblem of a red eye on her blue uniform, and a similar symbol was painted on her face so that a single red tear ran down her cheeks. Her eyes, red and fierce, also looked at him with gentle concern.

Wordlessly, she produced a dagger and offered its hilt to him.

Sheik looked at the dagger, and then felt himself force down his troubled emotions. He could not rid the sadness, but he no longer thought about the despair.

He understood what the dagger meant, and he took it from the woman, gripping its hilt tightly.

He needed to fight.

The woman with the white hair looked at him sadly, her smile forlorn and haunting. She pulled him close into an embrace that was warm and familiar, like she was family.

"I am sorry," she said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sheik woke up.

He blinked, staring up at the dull greys and browns of the ceiling of the dilapidated house. A ray of light, still pale from the early morning, had crept through one of the cracks in the walls to shine on his face, waking him. He got up slowly and looked around. It was still fairly dark, especially inside the house, and Sheik judged that the sun hadn't properly risen over the horizon yet.

He turned to his side, and he smiled to himself when he saw that Vaati was still asleep, curled up next to where the fire had burnt out during the night. Apparently Vaati, too, hadn't been able to stay awake past first shift, and Sheik wondered if the same, almost soothing presence that had visited him on the first night, hadn't lulled his companion to sleep, too. The air had been cooler last night, and Sheik noted how uncomfortable Vaati appeared, his body tucked as close as it could get to where the fire had been. Quietly, Sheik threw one of their empty bags over Vaati's shoulders to let him rest longer, while he prepared for the next leg of their journey.

Making as little noise as possible, Sheik gathered up the bags of food and their canteens into one pile, and then picked up the Grand Scribe's book, now filled with scribbles from their brainstorming last night. He sat back down beneath the window of the house, and squinted in the darkness to reread some of the ideas for questions they had come up with.

Thuban had granted them an answer to one question, but only if the Keaton liked the question they asked. Of course the fox could have been messing with them, with no intention of answering any question and dismissing everything as a 'bad question,' but Sheik had a feeling that there _was_ a correct way to go about this in order to learn some answers. From what little he knew of the creature so far, he had a sense that, while Thuban was a difficult creature, they were at least _fair_.

The problem was to know what question they would judge as worthy, and just what question to ask out of the hundreds he and Vaati had had regarding their situation.

By the time Sheik had retired to bed last night, the two of them hadn't been able to decide what question they would ask Thuban when they found them in their next stop.

Of course the question that both he and Vaati had agreed that they wanted to know the most was regarding their past. If they knew more about themselves and who they were, then perhaps the answer to other questions, such as why they were here and why they were chained together, would also come to them. However, both of them also agreed that simply asking Thuban for their past would be met with rejection: Thuban seemed to guard the nature of their past very closely, and therefore any question regarding that would probably be labeled as a bad one.

Of course, there were plenty of other questions, too. Sheik pulled out the magical lens that the Phantom Shadow Beast had been guarding at the bottom of the well, and held it out in front of him. He and Vaati discovered last night that the lens had the ability to show them what their surroundings had looked like, before it had been ravaged by the desert.

Around them was the remains of an abandoned town, swallowed up by the endless sands and worn by the sun and the wind. Looking at the village through the lens, however, revealed a beautiful town nestled within lush green hills. The windmill stood proudly, tall, in the back of the village. Below it was lively with stalls for vendors, and some of the buildings had quaint, painted signs that welcomed visitors. The place had once been thriving.

Now it was dead.

There was a groan, and the bag that Sheik had placed over Vaati slipped down his shoulders as the pale haired boy woke up. Vaati sat himself up groggily, and then stared at the bag that had fallen off of him with a confused expression. He yawned, and then rubbed his eyes, turning towards Sheik. It took him several seconds to realize that it was already morning, and that he'd slept past first shift as Sheik had done the first night.

"I-!" He started to exclaim before Sheik could get in a single word, and then he faltered, his head still not caught up to his words as he was still not fully awake. His cheeks burned red, and then he shot Sheik a scowl as though daring him to say something about sleeping through his shift.

Sheik only laughed. "It's okay. I kind of expected it," he said, and then explained himself when Vaati began to look offended, "Do you remember anything about something forcing you to sleep last night?"

"What?" Vaati snapped, still upset through his embarrassment that he'd done the exact same thing that he'd chided Sheik a day ago. Then, he tilted his head a little as he thought carefully back on what Sheik was asking him. His brows knitted together when he realized there was something familiar to what Sheik described. No longer scowling, he asked slowly, "You think there's something that's making us fall asleep, whether we like it or not?"

"Maybe," Sheik nodded, "but I don't think it's random. Do you remember around when you fell asleep last night?"

"No," Vaati grumbled. After a few seconds, however, he lifted his head and his face brightened. "Wait," he said, "I think it might have been immediately after you went to sleep."

"It was the same for me, too, the first night," Sheik supplied.

"So you're thinking if one of us sleeps, so does the other one."

"Maybe."

"Nothing makes sense in this desert…" Vaati flicked the sand off of his clothes, annoyed. Then, he picked up the bag that had fallen from him earlier and regarded it with further confusion. "So did this sleep-inducing creature also…" he trailed off, holding out the empty bag.

"No, that was me. You looked cold."

"Oh."

Vaati looked at the bag in his hands awkwardly, and then tossed it back towards Sheik. There was a barely audible, hurried murmur of thanks before he stood up quickly and busied himself with getting ready for the walk ahead.

He grudgingly came back when he realized that he couldn't go very far from Sheik because they were chained together. Instead, he slung his canteen and his half of provisions across his shoulder and decided to stand over Sheik impatiently.

Sheik stood up slowly and picked up his things. He smiled to himself, amused by his companion's apparent embarrassment. Sheik didn't understand it, there wasn't anything to be ashamed of for receiving kindness. Unless, perhaps, Vaati wasn't used to accepting the kindness of others.

"Well?" Vaati looked him up and down, as though demanding what Sheik found so damned funny.

Sheik shook his head, indicating that he was dropping the conversation. "Let's go."

They stepped outside of the house they had taken shelter in. It was still early morning, and while the sun was beginning to rise, they could still see some of the brighter stars glowing in the sky. The air wasn't as blistering yet, and Sheik was hopeful that they would be able to reach their next destination before it became unbearably hot. With one last look at the desolate village, Vaati and Sheik made their way towards the empty dunes once more, in the direction indicated by the compass burned into their hands.

As they walked, Sheik discussed their options regarding the question they would ask Thuban when they met them again. It didn't take very long for the blonde to notice that his companion seemed distracted by something. Vaati barely replied with anything more than a few words to Sheik, and his chin was pointed downwards as he looked at his feet thoughtfully while he walked. Sheik didn't say anything about it at first, but after some time he became exasperated.

_Is he seriously still embarrassed about this morning?_

Sheik turned around to say something, but in the same moment, Vaati seemed to have decided to say something as well.

"Did you dream last night?" Vaati asked abruptly.

Sheik quickly stopped himself from saying what he'd been about to say, and instead tried to catch up on what Vaati had asked him. Then, he noted Vaati's sharp tone and his concentrated expression, and he began to understand what Vaati was getting at. Vaati, too, had had an unusually vivid dream, the same as he had. "Yes," Sheik nodded. "I had one the first night as well. Both were unusually vivid and admittedly struck me as strange, but-"

"Same," Vaati cut him off, looking more bothered than before. He fell back to his own thoughts, his face contorted into deep concern, and he said nothing for a while. Sheik decided not to press him for now, and the two continued onwards, only the sound of their clanking chains echoing in the air.

The sun had traveled a quarter up the sky when Vaati eventually came around, his thoughts gathered and ready to be shared. "The dream felt real," he said thoughtfully.

Vaati had been quiet for so long that Sheik was caught off guard when he did hear his voice again. He tilted his head towards his companion, and saw that Vaati was looking at him with that same, intense gaze, as though silently asking if he agreed. "It did," Sheik replied. It was true, he could still feel the emotions from the dream strongly, and he could still remember the details of the woman who'd held him, including the way she whispered a pained apology, almost like a goodbye. Sheik frowned when he noticed that Vaati had gone ashen when he'd confirmed that the dream had indeed felt real. "Are you all right?" he asked.

The question seemed to bring Vaati back to reality, and he deflected it with his usual scowl. "Yes, it's nothing," he replied. Then, his expression softened and he turned away. "It's just…"

Somehow, Sheik couldn't bring himself to say 'It was just a dream.' Instead, he said nothing.

"Do you think, perhaps, that these dreams… they have something to do with what happened in our past?" Vaati asked after a while.

The same idea had been in Sheik's head, as well. Sheik tried not to sound too worried, but he was concerned by how disturbed and hung up Vaati seemed to be regarding the dreams. His eyes widened when something occurred to him, and he tried to lighten up the mood a little. "Maybe that can be the question we ask Thuban," he suggested. It wasn't directly asking for answers regarding their past, but if their suspicions were correct, then their dreams could be reliable information to figure out who they were. The question was also vague enough that he had a feeling Thuban would be willing to answer it.

There was only a flicker of a smile to show agreement before Vaati's lips curled back into a frown once more. Knowing he was being obtuse about what was bothering him, Vaati scratched his head and flopped his hands to his sides dejectedly. "I… had a strange dream," he admitted.

"So did you dream about waking up in the middle of a desert with no memory of anything, and chained together to a stranger who was equally confused?"

Finally, Vaati barked a laugh, the first smile in a while. "Ha!" he exclaimed, "Yes, and there was also a talking magical fox." Then, he shook his head and began again in a more serious tone. "No, it was… I don't know how to explain it… disturbing. I was in some kind of tournament. A sword fighting contest of some kind, and I had been named the winner," he explained. "The prize for the winner was a chest with a sword driven into it. I… I went to open it," he said, his voice becoming uncertain, "When I did, I released hundreds of monsters from the chest."

"That does sound disturbing," Sheik agreed sympathetically. However, Vaati shook his head vehemently.

"No, you don't understand," he said, his voice quiet. "That wasn't what was disturbing. It was the fact that I didn't care about what I had done. There was something I needed to find, and it hadn't been in the chest."

"But it clearly bothers you now," Sheik supplied.

There was a sharp tug on Sheik's ankles, and he almost tripped. He turned around to see that Vaati had stopped walking, and was staring at him like he'd said something important. Sheik, too, was startled by the way his companion was looking at him, and a nervous murmur rose in his chest as red eyes locked with his.

"I don't feel anything," Vaati said slowly, carefully, like an epiphany coming to him.

"Sheik, all I feel is anger."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Their next stop was yet another broken and abandoned town. Rather than numerous, individual buildings like in Kakariko, however, all of the residences were connected to each other, with some on top of the other so that there was a total of three floors of houses. Sheik brought out the purple lens, or the Lens of Truth as he and Vaati had dubbed it, and it showed that what was left of this new village was not much different than what it had once been. The stone walls of this village had withstood the harsh desert winds, almost like it had been meant for this kind of barren environment. The only things that hadn't survived were the majority of ladders that had once connected the different floors together.

The two boys proceeded cautiously into the buildings, their experience with the well-monster still fresh in their minds. After some time, however, they began to relax when it seemed like there was no one else here aside from the two of them. This village looked emptier than Kakariko, almost like it had been completely cleared out by those who had once lived here to escape to someplace better. Indeed, the Lens of Truth showed that once upon a time, the rooms had been decorated with bright cloths of red and gold, and the walls had proudly displayed some impressive scimitars and spears that were made with careful craftsmanship. Now there was nothing, not even a table or chair, left in any of the rooms. Each was as empty as the last, and not even broken remains could be found.

They eventually came upon Thuban in the last room, in the highest floor in the most spacious room of the village. The Lens of Truth showed that this room had once been decorated with rich tapestries and feathers from a gigantic bird. The room had been adorned with silks and glass beads that shimmered in the sun, as well as the skulls of large boars. There had been a crystal ball, too, in the center of the room where Thuban now hovered, waiting for them.

" _As promised, I am here,"_ Thuban said, floating in the middle of the now drearily empty chamber. Their eyes glinted, and they cocked their head. " _Now speak. You have a question for me. If it interests me, I will be glad to answer it. You have deserved that much."_

Sheik and Vaati exchanged glances as though to confirm that they had the same question in mind. Since Sheik had been the one to speak to Thuban about it originally, he stepped forward. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. "Thuban," he said, "the dreams that both of us have been having every night; they have a connection to our past."

They waited patiently for Thuban to say something in response. What Sheik had said hadn't technically been a question, but a statement, and both he and Vaati had agreed that that would be the best way to approach this. They discussed that Thuban seemed to dislike being prodded for answers, and therefore may show more respect to those who came to answers on their own. Rather than asking for the Keaton to provide them with all of the answers, their question was to request confirmation that their idea was correct.

A twinkle appeared in the desert Keaton's eyes, and as the two boys had suspected, Thuban seemed to approve of the question they'd chosen, as well as the way they had asked it. " _A perfect question,"_ they said, pleased. _"As promised, I will indulge you with one answer. The answer is Yes."_

Both Sheik and Vaati's shoulders relaxed, and for a moment they both flashed each other a smile as though to congratulate each other on finding a question that was acceptable to Thuban. However, it was quickly replaced by a difficult expression of contemplation, as each went over the dreams they'd had so far and tried to piece together what they meant. It was unclear whether the revelation was something to celebrate, considering the troubling nature of their dreams.

Thuban interrupted their thoughts. " _Because you have impressed me with your choice of question, I will indulge you even further: every time you rest your eyes in a new sanctuary, a new dream will come to you. As I said before, follow the path, and the truth will come to you,"_ the fox grinned.

"And what awaits us at the end?" Vaati asked.

Thuban's grin suddenly flipped downwards into a small snarl. The difference was abrupt and startling. " _Did I not say I will only answer one question and one question only? The terms were made clear, I will not reward greed. I will not provide more than you deserve,"_ they said condescendingly, looking down their pointed nose at Vaati. They snapped their fingers, cutting off the pale teen who'd been boldly about to say something in retort, and in the same moment summoned some additional food and water for the two of them. Then, without another word, the black Keaton disappeared quickly like their mood had been soured, leaving the two boys alone in the desolate village.

"Have I told you how much I hate that fox yet?" Vaati asked irritably, to which Sheik smiled and nodded. Vaati sighed loudly, and then looked around the room. "So I guess we have the food and water that'll last us for the next leg, but do you think we'll find more of those pages for the Grand Scribe's book?"

"Found it."

"Already?" Vaati asked, incredulous, and walked over to Sheik who was crouched over by the window of the room. The window, Vaati admitted, provided an impressive view, perhaps the best view in the entire village. The location where it was situated suggested that the architect had planned for the perfect silhouettes created by the roofs of the lower abodes, and from up where they were, the desert almost, ( _ALMOST,_ Vaati thought stubbornly), looked beautiful.

The blank paper they were looking for was waiting for them on the edge of the windowsill of the serene view.

Once again, the ink appeared on the torn page once it was placed inside the book. The two boys read it in tense silence, taking heed of the information it revealed carefully:

_The story of the Gerudo is full of misunderstandings and discrimination, betrayal and blood. How apt, then, that the most guarded prison be located near their home. Here the land's most evil criminals were brought to be judged for their sins. The wicked could not escape the Arbiter's Grounds._

_The third sanctuary overlooks where the Arbiter's Grounds once was. The Gerudo always viewed the prison with hatred, as more Gerudo than any other race was sent to these unholy grounds._

_May you look upon the solemn horizon that the Gerudo once saw, and reflect on the path you've walked._

Vaati shrugged once he was done reading over Sheik's shoulder. "Arbiter's Grounds, hmm?" he wondered aloud, "Don't think that has anything to do with that Keaton, do you?"

"I don't know," Sheik replied, "but it's possible the names are related. They're both related to the desert, and… judging things."

"Judging sins?"

There was an uncomfortable silence as they thought about what that would mean, if true. Neither of them had openly admitted it yet, but both of them were almost convinced that Thuban was, at the very least, a very powerful spirit.

Perhaps even a god.

There was just something about them, from the way they could appear and reappear at will, the way they seemed to always know what the two of them were doing, and the way they held themselves like they were a creature too powerful for the likes of them to comprehend…

What in the world had the two of them done to catch the interest of a creature such as Thuban, whatever they were?

They poured over the text once more, trying to find any kind of enlightening information, but eventually gave up, too tired to think too hard about their situation. They decided instead to read any helpful advice that might be found on the other side of the page. They had missed it in Kakariko, and had paid dearly for it.

Sure enough, there was more ink on the other side of the paper. What they found, however, did not do anything to lessen their unease.

"The hell is that supposed to mean? _!_ " Vaati exclaimed, and this time, Sheik didn't know how to respond. The phrase wasn't long. In fact, it was a saying that wasn't uncommon.

The fact that the words were being posed to them now as advice to follow, however, was disturbing:

 _Keep your friends close,_ it read.

_Your enemies, closer._


	5. Torment

_With her kingdom in ruins, it is up to the princess of the broken kingdom to fight the demon in the Hero's stead. She is the people's last hope, the last light to drive back the darkness that threatens to consume the world. They looked to her to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders alone._

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Night had fallen, but neither Sheik nor Vaati were eager to rest, disturbed by the things they had learned earlier. They had found a fireplace in the room where they'd found Thuban and had gotten a fire going with the flint and dried wood that had already been left there. Sheik was sitting near it, turning the pages of the Grand Scribe's book over and over again, while Vaati was curled up in the shadow of the wall, his expression grave as he stared pointedly at the empty spot between his feet in silence.

_Keep your friends close,_ Sheik read again, tracing his finger over the warning, _your enemies closer._

He glanced over at Vaati, who had retreated to his corner after their conversation earlier, brooding over his thoughts alone. His somewhat temperamental companion had been upset, and understandably so. The two of them had, perhaps foolishly out of a desire to believe, that the author of the book that they'd found was their one true ally in this goddess forsaken desert. In the emptiness of the land, they'd come to an almost unspoken, mutual excitement for finding the book's pages, and the pages had been something they had both begun to look forward to in their journey.

However, the recent warning by the Grand Scribe almost seemed intended to create a rift between the two of them, and they, Vaati especially, couldn't help but resent that.

"It could be talking about Thuban?" Vaati had asked him earlier. "Keep friends close," he'd pointed to Sheik and the chain connecting them both, "enemies closer… as in that fox."

The uncertainty in Vaati's voice was all the both of them needed to confirm that neither of them thought it was as simple as that.

Though neither of them wanted to admit it out loud, the fact was that the warning could very easily have been talking about the two of them being enemies. They still didn't know who they were or what they had been doing before they woke up in this strange desert, and the way Thuban spoke of them suggested that they had known each other in some capacity before. It was just as likely that they had been enemies in the past as it was that they had been friends. There was, too, the warning Thuban had given Sheik at the well, when Vaati had demonstrated proficiency in extremely powerful sorcery. The Keaton had said something about 'keeping things balanced' by preventing Vaati from remembering magic, and it had sounded an awful lot like the fox had meant for the two of them to eventually go against each other.

Sheik sighed. The only thing he and Vaati had was trust in each other, but exhaustion from the desert heat and confusion from amnesia made them both naturally weary and short on patience.

Sheik had hesitated from Vaati's question, thinking about all the possibilities on what it could mean. This had offended Vaati, assuming that Sheik's pause meant that he was suggesting that the two of them were enemies, but the speed at which Vaati had reached this conclusion indicated that somewhere, he'd been thinking the same thing as Sheik. He'd directed his anger instead at the book, and claimed he no longer wanted anything to do with it while Sheik had gone back to read it over, in the hope that there would be some other message in it that they had missed.

That was where they were now, and Sheik still hadn't been able to make further sense of the ominous and vague warning that had been left to them by the Grand Scribe. He closed the book and set it aside, and then stretched his arms before he huddled over by the fire. From the chill that had begun to settle already, Sheik could tell that tonight was going to be even colder than the last.

"You're going to sleep?"

Sheik lifted his head to see that Vaati was looking at him from where he was sitting against the wall. He appeared uneasy, and his fingers were tense and digging into his knees. Sheik nodded slowly, concern edging into the tenseness along his brows as he wondered what it was that his companion was worried about.

"Don't," Vaati said, and then lowered his head back down onto a knee. "Not yet."

_Oh, I forgot that if one of us falls asleep, then so does the other,_ Sheik thought, finally understanding what it was that was bothering him. He remembered how disturbed Vaati had been regarding the dreams he'd been having, and didn't blame him for not being ecstatic about the prospect of having more when they went to sleep again. _Can only feel anger,_ Sheik recalled what Vaati had said after talking about his dream. He couldn't fathom what that was like, but he also didn't think his companion had been exaggerating. Ever since Vaati had mentioned it, Sheik noticed how there was always a dim fire in his eyes, of a subdued, almost pained rage that, while concealed behind his bored attitude and bitter laughter, was always there. It was just hidden beneath the surface, with a trigger just waiting to ignite the flame into something explosive and dangerous.

Sheik winced inwardly, ashamed that a word such as 'dangerous' had snuck into his head while he thought about his companion. The Grand Scribe's warning as well as Thuban's was messing with his head. They needed to work _together_ to get out of this desert, and it was unfair to treat Vaati with caution when he'd done nothing wrong so far.

_But you saw how easily he defeated the Phantom Shadow Beast. That kind of destructive magic isn't normal._

_It isn't right._

Sheik shook his head, shaking his thoughts away. He was tired, so of course he wasn't thinking straight. Maybe Vaati was right to get angry at the Grand Scribe; if they were keeping possibilities open, it was just as likely that the scribe was their enemy and was trying to break the two apart. They didn't even know who the Scribe was.

They didn't know who Thuban was.

And they sure didn't know who in Subrosia they themselves were.

"I can wait for you to sleep first," Sheik replied kindly. Vaati nodded gratefully, and sunk back down against the shadow of the wall, seemingly melting into the room like he wanted to disappear and forget everything. Then, after a while, he scowled unhappily and pushed himself up to join Sheik by the fire, and huddled up in front of it to warm his freezing hands. Though he pretended to sit by Sheik because he was cold, the way he glanced at Sheik a few times like he was struggling to say something suggested that the frigid air wasn't his only reason for joining him. Finally, he took a deep breath and absentmindedly tossed a kindling into the fire. The fire reached for it, the flames licking upwards before it died back down into a warm glow.

"Now that we know that our dreams are about our past, did you learn anything new about yourself?" Vaati asked. The light of the fire danced back and forth across his face, which was knotted into a complicated expression again.

"I don't know. They've been too vague so far."

"Tell me," he said quietly.

Sheik shifted in his seat and looked over to where Vaati was huddled up by the fire, his face resting against his knees and his arms out towards the heat to warm them. Looking at his shadowed expression, Sheik wondered if, perhaps, he was being too critical of him. Vaati, too, seemed almost… afraid… of his own past.

"I remember the emotions more than anything," Sheik began, thinking back on the vivid dreams he'd been having.

He remembered the beautiful lullaby. The servant bearing bad news. The woman embracing him with an apology in his ear.

All of the memories were haunted by a heavy, leaden feeling of defeat and hopelessness, like something had grabbed his heart and crushed it in its palms.

"Something bad had happened, and I was overcome with despair," he said softly, and then he sighed, resting his chin on his knees as well, mirroring Vaati's sullen posture beside him. "To be honest I don't know if I want to go back to those dreams again."

Vaati didn't say anything, but Sheik could sense silent agreement while they both sat in front of the fire. They remained that way for a while, the night continuing to fall around them until the light from the fire was the only thing staving off the darkness.

Vaati suddenly jolted upon remembering a thought, and he lifted his head. The movement caused the chain between them to scrape along the ground, and the noise prompted Sheik to look at his companion in surprise.

Beside him, Vaati was still staring at the fire, but his expression was terrified. His eyes were wide, and his lips were slightly parted as he thought of what to say. There was a blankness to his gaze like he wasn't completely aware of himself, and his voice was hoarse when he spoke. "Sheik, I'm…"

He trailed off, unable to complete his sentence and explain what thoughts had tormented him so suddenly. A bead of sweat rolled down his angled nose, and Sheik began to worry that something was seriously wrong.

Sheik tentatively reached out a hand towards his companion, hoping to comfort him. However, he hesitated, not sure if he was overstepping his bounds; after all, Vaati seemed to be someone who was especially uncomfortable with any demonstration of kindness. He slowly reached towards him like someone trying to reassure a wild animal, stopped briefly, and reached out again to finally place a comforting hand on the other's shoulder.

Immediately Vaati withdrew with an almost violent reaction. He whirled around, striking Sheik's hand away instinctively. The glare in his crimson eyes was terrifyingly malevolent. Sheik flinched backwards, surprised by the reaction, and he held up his hands as though to defend himself. There was a fresh red mark across Sheik's hand where Vaati had hit it away.

When Vaati came around, he appeared shocked by his own reaction towards Sheik, and the two of them stared at each other blankly. Vaati's brows knitted together, just as confused as Sheik was, and then he turned away quickly. "No use worrying," he muttered under his breath, refusing to acknowledge what he'd just done. He lay down across the fire, rolling over so that his back was towards Sheik. "I guess we'd better sleep at some point."

"… Alright," Sheik agreed slowly.

He didn't know what had just happened between the two of them, and what had prompted Vaati to look at him with such hateful eyes. He rubbed the back of his hand where it still stung from the blow.

The eyes, he couldn't shake the image of Vaati's eyes seared into his head. It had burned with all the fury of a desert storm.

_Sheik, all I feel is anger._

Vaati had been about to tell him something before he'd locked up with that horrified expression on his face. They'd been speaking of dreams, then.

There was something else Vaati wasn't telling him about the dreams he was having.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Good form, but you can be quicker."

Sheik's vision cleared at the sound of a woman's voice. It was familiar, and he recognized to his excitement that it was the white haired woman he'd seen in one of his dreams the night before. _I must have fallen asleep,_ he thought, and wondered briefly how aware of himself he now was, now that he knew that these were memories within a dream. It was almost like seeing a vision play out in his head, except he was one of the characters within it, reenacting the past.

He twirled a dagger between his fingers expertly, and they felt comfortable in his hands like he was used to fighting with them. His fingers were taped, and briefly he remembered how in his previous dreams he'd been wearing silk gloves. He felt this detail was important, but the more he tried to focus on it, the more muddled his memories became. He eventually gave up when his current dream continued, and the woman with the white hair gave him some pointers on his sparring form.

At least, that's what he assumed she was saying to him, because the dream suddenly became murky, and he became distracted by some other affair that was occurring far away from the training grounds of the castle.

_Castle. How do I know I'm at the Castle again?_ he wondered. _Did I used to live in a Castle?_

When he regained focus, he found himself sparring with the woman with the white hair again. His movements were swift and skillful, and they felt natural to him, like he was relearning something he'd forgotten he could do. However, there was still that feeling of being distracted by something.

Something terrible beyond the castle walls.

He was afraid, but he had to face it for their sake.

_Who are they?_

He wanted to run.

He couldn't run.

They all depended on him.

_I'm breaking. I can't do this._

_I have to._

_I can't._

_Everything is gone._

_It's all gone._

_I'm sorry._

The dagger slid away from his fingers and it fell to the ground. The woman sparring him dropped her weapon as well and ran to him, concerned. She called his name.

Sheik's eyes widened.

It was that name again, the name that was his, but different than the one he claimed now. He tried to focus on it, trying to figure out what it was. He could feel the name on the tip of his tongue, just barely out of his reach. He could almost see the name in his mind. Just a little more time and he could finally-

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sheik stared at the ceiling. He blinked slowly, and then tried to turn his head.

Just a few seconds ago, he'd been on the verge of figuring out the name that the people in his dreams referred to him by, but before he could learn what it was, he'd been thrown out of his dream. Frustration overcoming him, he squeezed his eyes back shut with a grimace, and suppressed a disappointed groan. He'd been so, so close, and what got to him the most was the fact that he had a feeling that his other name was key to knowing a lot of things about his own past. It wasn't that he thought that the name 'Sheik' was fake and that this other name was his 'real' name. No, he had a feeling that the second name was just as real as 'Sheik,' but it was an important part of who he'd once been.

With a frown, he turned his head towards the thing that had brought him out of sleep. He was frustrated enough that he was about to give whatever it was a piece of his mind, but he suddenly froze when he realized what the object of offense had been.

Vaati had rolled towards him, unaware in his sleep. However, he wasn't sleeping soundly, and appeared to be tormented by something. The hand that had woken Sheik was gripping his arm like a vice, and his expression was twisted into one of pain.

Sheik's frown relaxed, and he shook his head to himself as he looked at his companion who seemed to be plagued by a nightmare. Careful not to wake Vaati, Sheik twisted his neck towards the window. It was still dark out. The fire had died into softly glowing coals, but there was still some warmth to it to stave off a little bit of the chill. Outside, he could hear the shifting sands as the serpent patrolled the night. With a small sigh, Sheik tried to make himself comfortable again to sleep once more. He could already feel the presence of the being that pulled them to sleep lurking about, and could feel his eyes falling heavy once again.

He glanced at Vaati curled up against him, still clinging to his arm. He looked so vulnerable then, like a terrified child, that he almost wanted to reach out and comfort him. However, he stopped himself, remembering how his companion had looked at him with such searing hatred at his touch earlier. He withdrew his outstretched hand and placed it against his side instead.

The small movement caused Vaati to stir. The fingers around Sheik's right arm gripped him tighter, as though afraid that he was going to leave him. Then, there was a small murmur of a voice, which Sheik barely caught with his ears. He'd thought he'd imagined it at first, but he heard it again a second time.

Delirious in his nightmare, Vaati clenched Sheik's arm tightly, refusing to let go. "Not again," Sheik heard him say. There were some inaudible murmurs, but he caught other phrases between the tormented whispers.

"Don't make me go back there."

"Not again."

"Don't trap me there alone."

Sheik looked at him, soft and pensive. _What terrible dreams he must be having,_ he thought, and he felt sorry for him. _It's no wonder he'd been so disturbed when we learned that our dreams have answers to our past…_

Careful not to bother him, Sheik moved a little closer, not close enough to touch, but close to hopefully be a presence of solace. He wanted to do something to help; at least he could keep an eye on him until he was forced back into sleep.

Though unaware of his own actions, Vaati's vice grip relaxed just a little. His last murmured words were of haunting acceptance.

"Madness my only company…"


	6. Faith

_WHy is iT thAt I am ConTEnt to SimPLy oBseRvE and idly record history while the WoRLd faLLs at My FeET? Can I not help these souls in some way? Is iT in My PLaCe to iNtErFERe?_

_ARBITER have MerCy, I caN wATch sILentLY nO LonGer._

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _It's cold_.

That was Vaati's first thought as he started to wake, and the tenseness of his shoulders gradually left when he realized that whatever it was he'd been experiencing had been nothing but a dream.

Well, perhaps it was more than 'nothing,' considering that, according to Thuban, his dreams were things that he'd experienced in his past. He kept his eyes shut and his nose wrinkled; he didn't want to think about what he'd dreamed of last night. 'Traumatic,' was perhaps the best word to describe it. He imagined falling into insanity would be exactly like what he'd experienced in his dream, and it wasn't something he looked forward to dreaming of again.

The truth was, he'd already dreamt of something similar the first night, though he had yet to tell Sheik about it. Perhaps he should have, but at the same time, he wasn't obligated to tell him just because they were chained together by the ankles and he was the only living thing in the desert aside from Thuban as far as he knew. It also hadn't occurred to him to tell Sheik anything about it after the first night, because he'd simply dismissed it as a strange nightmare, one where he was thrown into a vast, empty void for an incomprehensible amount of time and was forced to sleeplessly wander. Alone.

He lay there, unmoving for a while, as he took a deep breath and let his senses come back to him. Apparently he'd been in a cold sweat, because the moisture that ran along his forehead made his skin cooler to the chilled desert night air. There was a source of warmth, which he'd curled up against while he'd slept. His right arm was almost wrapped against it. It was a comforting contrast to the bitter air of the desert night.

Still groggy, he nuzzled against it, not really thinking about what he was doing. He remained like that for some time, slowly adjusting to the waking world.

He opened his eyes gradually as the tenseness completely left his shoulders, and his slurred thoughts became sharper. Then, creases began to appear on his forehead when he realized just what, exactly, he'd ended up clinging onto during the night.

It was an arm.

Sheik's arm.

Vaati instantly went rigid, and it was only out of fear of waking Sheik in this position that prevented him from jolting away. It was incredibly embarrassing, and he wanted nothing more than to stick his head into the fireplace and hope a fire would burn away all of his most recent memories.

Still mortified and growing redder by the second, Vaati carefully slid his hand away from his companion's arm, glancing at him every few seconds to make sure that he didn't notice anything. He didn't want to explain himself if Sheik woke up and saw him huddled up against him.

However, he eventually began to relax when he realized that Sheik was still fast asleep, and he was in no danger of being found out. Rather than continue to panic, he took the liberty of studying his companion up close. This was the closest the two of them had been, as Sheik had somehow rolled over to his side in his sleep as well. He, too, had curled up towards him, his blond hair falling over his eyes and his chin tucked towards his chest that rose and fell softly. Vaati couldn't help but notice that Sheik's other hand, the one that he hadn't accidentally been holding onto, was close to his head, but not uncomfortably so, almost like he'd reached out to him but had decided to keep a respectful distance.

Did he imagine it? A flicker of emotion, before it was overcome by the dull flame of anger that was always there, always burning like coals in the depths of his chest. It had been too brief, and he couldn't identify what it was…

All he felt was anger.

White hot rage that kept him focused in the void.

A void that lasted for centuries.

Going insane.

Madness held off only with anger.

Wrath.

Focus.

Focus.

He won't fall apart if he could only focus.

Wrath.

It took him a few seconds to realize that he was staring at a pair of red eyes.

Sheik and Vaati stared at each other blankly for a while, both of them trying to figure out how to react. Sheik was the first to move, and he abruptly got up, the hand that had been closest to Vaati's head flying away like it had been caught somewhere it shouldn't be. Vaati, who'd already had some time to get used to the fact that they'd ended up falling asleep near each other, decided to throw on a smirk to hide how he'd been flustered earlier as well. Propping himself up on his elbows, he said amused, "Morning."

Sheik mumbled something in response, but had his head turned away. He ruffled his own hair, distracted, and then tried to stand up to go do something only to remember that he had to wait for Vaati since the two of them were chained together.

"Sleep well?" Sheik asked, trying to avoid whatever snarky comment Vaati might make regarding his embarrassed reaction.

Vaati's grin instantly flipped downwards as he remembered his dreams from last night. "No," he said flatly. Then, before Sheik could ask, he stood up and brushed himself off while saying dismissively, "I don't want to talk about it."

For a moment, Sheik looked like he wanted to say something about it, and there was a concerned look on his face like he wanted to help him somehow. However, Vaati's cool gaze that had an antagonistic undertone dissuaded him, and he instead went to pack their things in preparation for the next leg of their journey.

The two of them silently went about getting ready, and there seemed to be an unspoken agreement between the two not to ask each other about what they had seen last night in their dreams. Vaati's slight scowl of caution eventually relaxed, and he appeared grateful that Sheik didn't press him about the issue further.

The truth was that Vaati didn't know what to make of his dreams. There hadn't been anything specific to remember, since all he could see was an eternal emptiness that extended infinitely, but the emotions associated with it had been powerful and raw. He could still feel the surge of panic when realization set in that he was stuck, alone in this void ( _again_ ), and the creeping itch of a thought that insanity was inevitable.

He couldn't _afford_ to go insane. He had things to do, for when he escaped.

_But what? And escape what? What was this void?_

He had to hold on, somehow. Needed to find something tangible in this nothingness.

Hold on to wrath. Focus.

"Ready?"

He blinked. He'd spaced out again, thinking about his dreams. This time, Sheik didn't bother hiding his concern, and he was leaning towards him to peer into his face. Vaati couldn't help but notice that, while his companion stood near him, he was hesitant at reaching out to him again after he'd hit him away the day before.

Vaati hadn't actually meant react so violently at a mere touch, and he wasn't even sure what had come over him to make him act so. He didn't think he had any strong opinion regarding people touching his shoulders or tapping him on the arm… his own reaction had surprised him as much as it had Sheik. It was like… it was like he'd just lost control of his own wrath.

That fact didn't scare him as much as it should have.

"Ready…" he said slowly, and he led the way out towards the calm desert, with Sheik following shortly after.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The passage across the desert to their next destination was more brutal than ever. Vaati didn't remember it being such a difficult trek the first two times, and he wondered with dread whether the journey was becoming progressively more difficult as they neared their final destination, wherever that may be.

At one point he'd completely emptied out his canteen, and yet they still hadn't been able to spot their next destination. He'd tried to be careful of conserving water, but the sun beating down on them forced him to drink for fear of dangerous dehydration. Even Sheik, who seemed more used to difficult treks like this than he was, also appeared to be struggling with their most recent leg of their journey across the desert.

It was only his refusal to be a burden that allowed Vaati to continue onwards as long as he had. Because they were both chained together, if one of them fell, then the other would be forced to stop as well, and he absolutely refused to be the reason why they failed to make it to their next destination. By the time they saw a hump of a shadow in the horizon that indicated their arrival at their next stop, Vaati was just barely dragging his feet forward in the sand, kept upright only through determination and tenacity.

Eager to refresh themselves with the next set of provisions, which they assumed would be waiting for them, the two quickened their paces until they were standing before a large rock-face jutting out of the sand. It was a massive block of reddish brown stone about fifty feet in length and thirty feet tall, jagged as it rose from the sand and cut across the gently rolling landscape.

The two boys exchanged confused glances with each other: they had both expected an abandoned settlement like their last three rest stops.

They walked around the jutting rock, and were relieved when they finally came across what they were looking for. Once again, provisions of food and water had been left for them, enough to last them the rest of the day as well as the next part of their journey after the night.

However, only one set was provided this time, and there was only enough for one person. The other set of provisions could not be seen anywhere, no matter how much they searched the area. During their lap around the rock, they managed to find another page from the Grand Scribe's book that was waiting for them at the foot of a tall statue, the same one that they had found at the broken tower at the very beginning of their journey. The Goddess Statue watched the desert in peaceful silence while the two travelers became increasingly panicked at the lack of a second set of provisions.

"It has to be here somewhere," Sheik said, trying to hide the mounting distress in his voice. "We need to keep looking." Normally, they would have immediately gone to read the Scribe's page, but they were too worried about the lack of food and water that was necessary for the both of them to survive.

"We already looked everywhere," Vaati said flatly, and he sat down to rest his legs. He ignored Sheik who looked at him with urgency when the chain around their ankles prevented him from exploring further than where Vaati was willing to go.

Vaati, who was carrying the bag with the one set of provisions left to them, looked at the full canteen in his hands thoughtfully. There was a greedy glimmer in his eye as he considered the consequences of taking all of it for himself and leaving Sheik to die. He was thirsty, hungry, exhausted, and desperate. Their latest walk had been brutal, and if the pattern held then it would only become more difficult as they progressed.

Sheik would be an unfortunate loss… and he would have to figure out how to detach himself from his companion's body, but it was becoming a matter of survival and he didn't know if it was worth it for them _both_ to die simply because they had been too nice to make necessary sacrifices.

Vaati narrowed his eyes, coming upon the only conclusion that made sense to him.

_Shame. I actually kind of liked his company._

Vaati's gaze swerved towards Sheik slowly, wondering what he was up to. Sheik had given up trying to argue with Vaati and had instead decided to rest against the shade of the rock as well. The blonde was crouched next to him, a pensive and almost starved look on his face as he stared at the provisions bag in Vaati's hands.

 _No doubt he'd reached the same conclusion as I,_ Vaati thought, a small grin on his face as he watched Sheik's expression turn grim as he came to some kind of difficult decision. _It's no surprise, of course. He's a sharp one._ He tensed and watched Sheik carefully as the other took a deep breath and waved his hand towards him.

"Take it. I'll find something on my own," he said.

Vaati stared at him in surprise. That was not at all what he'd expected Sheik to say. He began to feel angry when Sheik only smiled at his reaction.

"You clearly need it more than I do, and I still believe that Thuban left us something for us both. I'll need you to accompany my search after you've refreshed yourself, however," he said with infuriating patience.

Vaati stood up abruptly in anger, the sand flying into the air as he did so. He stormed over towards his companion who was smiling at him with acceptance. "Are you _mad?_!" he shouted, "You can die without this!"

Sheik merely shrugged. "I saw that look on your face," he said, causing Vaati to clam up immediately. "I know you came to the same conclusion I did: we have a better chance of survival if we don't share. At least one of us should make it. I don't want to carry a weight on my conscience knowing that I was responsible for killing you, and I don't want you to carry that weight either. I'll make the decision for you. You should take it."

"You… you're not serious," Vaati hissed, and he threw the bag aside to instead yank Sheik by the collar and drag him up towards his face. He searched Sheik's face for a lie, but he found none. Sheik was deathly serious about this. He shoved Sheik back, releasing his hold, and he paced back and forth while he fumed.

" _Fight,"_ he finally snarled, the chain clanking as he stopped in front of his companion who had reached quiet acceptance. "Why don't you _fight?_ " He didn't understand it. It was the most basic instinct to fight for survival, and yet Sheik was giving up, just like that?

"I'm not giving up," Sheik said, reading Vaati's mind. "I have faith that there's a better answer than turning on each other. If voluntarily giving up these provisions will keep us from fighting until we find the other set, then I will do so."

Vaati's nose twitched, and his face was still twisted into a snarl. There was something about that naïve little hope that made his rage burn. Faith? _Faith? The fool was going to die._ Vaati hated nothing more than the kind of blind stupidity that was coming out of Sheik's mouth. "We'll search until sundown but after that _you're on your own,"_ he spat. "I'll cut your leg off and continue on alone, are we clear?"

"Yes."

 _You're not supposed to sound so accepting!_ Vaati screamed internally, and he turned on his heel, kicking up more sand as he threw his hands up in frustration. The conclusion was the same one as what he'd initially been planning, but when Sheik was just willing to go along with it, it left a bitter taste in his mouth. He took an unnecessarily large swig of water from the canteen and dropped onto the sand angrily while Sheik calmly took out the Grand Scribe's book and began to read it.

"This used to be a mountain," Sheik said, composed, as though they hadn't just been talking about who to sacrifice between the two of them. He glanced at Vaati who had his back turned to him and was fuming silently. Then, he went back to reading the newest page of the Grand Scribe's book aloud:

_The tallest mountains of Hyrule were inhabited by the Gorons, a resilient race that could withstand the fires of Death Mountain. Though possessing power enough to dig caverns in the mountains with their fists alone, they were a peaceful race that preferred seclusion over confrontation._

_Like the Gorons before you, leave behind your anger and offer all you have to the goddess in waiting to find passage through the mountain's grave._

Sheik's head shot towards the Goddess Statue towered over them nearby along the rock face. Beside him, he noticed Vaati had perked up a little as well, and was studying the statue out of the corner of his eye.

It was almost like the last passage of the Grand Scribe's page was speaking of the Goddess Statue.

"Passage through the mountain's grave," Sheik murmured to himself, repeating the passage. He stood up to take a closer look at the area near the statue once again, but his legs nearly gave out as he did so, tired from the walk across the desert. Before he fell, however, Vaati had moved to his side and caught him, steadying him with his arms.

"Is anything written on the other side of the page?" Vaati asked. He refused to meet Sheik's gaze, and his expression was unreadable like stone. However, his arms around him were firm, determined not to allow him to fall. He was beginning to entertain the possibility that perhaps Sheik had been right to be hopeful, though he was loathe to admit it.

Gratefully leaning against Vaati's shoulder, Sheik turned the page of the book. Like the other times before, there was more advice for them on the back. This time, however, there was only a single word.

"Faith," Sheik read.

"Sounds like you and this Scribe will get along just fine," Vaati muttered under his breath. Sheik, however, wasn't listening, and seemed to be distracted by a thought. Pulling away from Vaati's hands and steadying himself on his feet, he walked over to where his companion had thrown the bag of provisions in his fit of rage. He brought it back towards the Goddess Statue and studied it thoughtfully, rereading the Scribe's book from time to time.

"What is it?" Vaati asked uneasily, not liking the pondering look on Sheik's face.

After some time, Sheik replied slowly, carefully choosing his words. "I have an idea…" He finally turned to face Vaati with a small grimace. "You're not going to like it."

"I already know I'm not going to like it, just tell me what it is."

Sheik turned towards the statue again, a canteen of water in his hand. "You're going to have to have faith," he said quietly.

"What does that me-"

Before Vaati could finish what his question, Sheik opened the top of the canteen and walked towards the statue's hands that were cupped towards them. Then, before Vaati could stop him, he poured out the contents of the canteen onto the statue's hands. He was in the middle of placing the rest of the food on the statue's hands as well when Vaati ripped him away, furious. "What in Din's name-" he began, but was interrupted by a low grating rumbling coming from the rock wall.

The entrance of a cave revealed itself, and Vaati stared at it in open-mouthed shock. Then, he whirled around, rounding on Sheik who was looking at the entrance in just as much surprise as he. "If that idea of yours hadn't worked," Vaati began, holding up a finger in warning.

Sheik chuckled, relief overcoming him. Then, he smiled. "Faith," he repeated, and then walked into the cave.

Vaati shook his head, muttering under his breath as he followed his companion inside.

He almost bumped into Sheik who'd stopped abruptly in front of him after only three steps inside. He was about to snap an angry comment, except he finally noticed what it was that had caused Sheik to stop.

Vaati immediately stiffened, and he bent his knees into a low crouch as he eyed what had been waiting for them inside the cavern.

A thin ray of light shone down from the ceiling, illuminating the center of the cave where there was a flat platform. Surrounding it was ample food and water that was enough for both of them, but that wasn't what had caught their eyes and had given them pause.

Sitting cross-legged atop the platform was a person.

It was the first human that they had come across in the desert. Or, Vaati assumed that they were human, but it was impossible to be completely sure. They were covered from head to toe in a long robe the same color as the sand, and the only part of their body that was exposed was their hands which was rough and dry, ravaged by the desert. Their hooded face was covered by a black mask that looked all too similar to a particular desert Keaton.

"Ah, more lost souls wandering in here," the person said. Vaati judged that they were male based on the voice. There was a rattling breath, the labored sigh of a man who no longer found joy in life. "I tire this hopeless repetition." Then, anticipating their question, the man gave a heaving shrug, the gold rim along the mask glittering in the sunlight seeping into the cave.

"Did you think your situation was unique? Many others have walked the same path as you, and your fate will no doubt be the same as theirs. Leave me, I care not for your story."

"And what was their fate?" Vaati demanded, though cautious.

At this, the man looked him dead in the eye and gave him a single, chilling word.

"Despair."


	7. Arbiter of the Wastes

_The Arbiter has forbidden my direct involvement._

_I know not what came over me. The others say my close observations of our subjects have made me too attached to the mortal world. I have come to my senses. My quill is steady._

_The Arbiter was, however, taken with the idea of my INDIRECT involvement. While I am pleased to be able to help those poor souls, I am hesitant about the Arbiter's intentions. I cannot help but find their methods to be cruel sometimes, though I understand why they do it. I do not have the constitution to do what they do, which is exactly why I am the Grand Scribe, and they are the Arbiter. Empathy is inappropriate for what they must do._

_They have requested pages from my book, though for what use they intend them, I know not._

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sheik glanced at Vaati uneasily while Vaati himself watched the man in the Keaton mask with narrowed eyes. They had just discovered that there had been others like them to make the same journey across the desert, and that nothing worthwhile awaited their journey's end.

"And who are you?" Vaati asked with a low growl. He had a growing dislike for the black Keaton who refused to give them straight answers, and he was gaining a similar dislike for the man with Thuban's mask.

The man barely shook his head in response, like he considered it too effortful to move. "My name, like my existence, is inconsequential," he said tiredly. His voice was laborious and mumbled, and he appeared disinterested in his two visitors and their questions. He'd seen the same scene and heard the same questions too many times before.

Vaati, however, was determined to get answers whether the man wanted to give them or not. He approached him with a menacing glower, slowly pacing forward and looking just about ready to grab him by the collar and fling him across the chamber. "What is this place? What are you doing here?" he continued to press, ignoring the man's reluctance for conversation.

The robed man, however, was equally stubborn, and he simply shrugged Vaati's question away with another unimpressed sigh. "It is not worth telling you." Then, when Vaati looked just about ready to storm up onto the platform and start a fight with him, he held up a withered hand. "The moment I tell you anything, the black Keaton will simply take your memories of our conversation away, and we will be back to the same questions. I tire of the repetition. You are not the first ones here with the same aged questions."

Vaati stopped, his argumentative expression instead turning into one of grudging frustration. Sheik, on the other hand, was unsurprised by the man's explanation. After all, he'd seen firsthand how Thuban had completely rid Vaati's memories of what had happened at the bottom of the well in Kakariko, and the man's explanation was consistent with what they already knew of the Keaton's resistance for them to find out the truth too soon. Sheik observed the man for a little while in silence, and then his eyes widened when something dawned on him.

"You're not with Thuban," he said, realizing how the man, despite wearing a mask that was in the exact likeness of the Keaton, spoke of them with something close to aggravation. He'd assumed that the man was with the fox because of the mask, but there was something about his attitude that suggested otherwise.

For the first time since they'd met, the man displayed emotion, confirming Sheik's suspicions. He gave a harsh laugh. "I despise that fox," he said bitterly. "I am not here voluntarily," he admitted, but he did not elaborate more, either because he did not want to talk about it, or more likely, it was a topic he was forbidden to discuss with them.

"Is there nothing you can tell us?" Sheik asked, while Vaati appeared much more sympathetic now that it was revealed that both he and the man had a mutual dislike for the black Keaton. Vaati took a few steps back to give the man some space, standing next to Sheik. He had his arms crossed over his chest and he still flashed him a cold glare, but he seemed willing to grudgingly listen at least.

The man nodded his head towards Vaati, acknowledging their dislike for Thuban. Then, he took a deep breath and gave a long, thoughtful hum. Although he'd been too tired to be helpful before, Sheik's observation that the three of them were not on Thuban's side seemed to have sparked a renewed interest in helping them. It was the sigh of someone who had lost all hope in trying to help others, but was willing to give one last shot to see if this time, something might be different. "The number of wanderers has increased in recent times," the man mused softly. "Not many make it here, and fewer survive the path ahead. If the desert doesn't kill them, then Ammit usually does."

"Ammit?" Vaati interrupted. It was a new name.

"The serpent," the man replied. It was the first confirmation that the enormous serpent that Sheik and Vaati had seen had not been something they'd imagined. "Your greatest enemy, however, is neither the desert nor the serpent. It is something much closer to you than you realize."

"And what does that mean?"

Vaati's question was met with silence. Though the man's advice was too vague on its own, the two travelers couldn't help but be reminded of a similar word of warning that they had heard a night ago in the Grand Scribe's book: _keep your friends close, your enemies closer._ Vaati clenched his fists, but he kept his silence. It had to be more than just a coincidence that two different sources were telling them that their enemy was something very close to them. _Or… someone._ Vaati wanted to demand more information from the man, but he knew that any attempt would be futile.

"Won't you join us?" Sheik asked, and waved a hand at the food and water that was laid out before them in the cave. "There seems to be more than enough food and water for all of us here, and we can help each other escape the desert."

Again there was that harsh, cynical laugh from the man. His answer surprised them. "I have already seen the end. There was nothing for me there," he said, causing both Sheik and Vaati to look at him with furrowed brows. "I was once like you, hopeful and determined. I made the journey, thinking the truth was what I wanted. I would tell you to turn back now, but I already know that you will not listen."

 _The fate of the others had been despair,_ Vaati thought back on what the man had said to them earlier. _If he had made it to the end, then why is he all the way back here? Is there truly nothing worthwhile waiting for us?_ He glanced at Sheik, who was looking downwards with a complicated and troubled expression on his face. _Why are all of us here in the first place?_ Then, he turned back towards the man who was looking at something behind them.

"They're coming." The man said it like he was expecting the arrival.

"Who?" Sheik asked, turning around to see what the man was looking at.

The question seemed to trigger something within the cave. Before the man could say anything, a hot wind blew in from the entrance, bringing sand with it. The small grains stung their eyes, forcing them closed, though Sheik tried his best to watch what was going on between his fingers that shielded his face. He nearly lost his balance, still exhausted from the trek across the desert, but was surprised when he felt Vaati grip him roughly by the arm to keep him standing upright.

The robed man raised his head slightly as the sand whirled around him. Sheik watched, surprised, when he thought he saw a dark, vulpine shadow within the sand. He wasn't sure if he'd imagined it, but he thought that the two of them exchanged some words, though he could hear nothing of the conversation. A pair of golden eyes flashed within the whirling sand, and the wind picked up, forcing him to close his eyes.

_You've heard enough for the time being…_

Sheik held his breath. _Thuban_.

The wind suddenly subsided, and the sand fell back to the ground in a dusty shower. When the two of them were able to open their eyes again, they found that the man with the black Keaton mask had vanished. Thuban, who Sheik was sure was the one he'd seen in the shadow of the sandstorm, was also nowhere to be seen.

Beside him, Vaati was still gripping his arm. His fingers were wrapped tightly around it, and he didn't seem to have noticed that he was still holding Sheik. Vaati stared at where the robed man had once been, his eyes wavering and distracted.

Sheik tapped him gently on the shoulder, to which Vaati immediately snapped around. Then, he saw Sheik pointing to the grip on his arm, and Vaati's taut expression relaxed. His fingers loosened, but not before he helped Sheik sit down in front of the platform where the man had been, and passed him water from the pile of provisions left to them.

Vaati dropped himself down to sit next to Sheik, and then he cradled his head in his hands arduously. Next to him, Sheik wordlessly drank water from the canteen.

There was too much to think about.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sheik wasn't sure how much time had passed since the robed man had vanished within the sand storm that had come gusting through the entrance of the cave. The light coming in from the entrance had dimmed, and Sheik had already started a fire for the night.

The two of them had been tired from the walk across the desert, and not much conversation had passed between them while they both rested with open eyes in the shelter of the cave. Not only were they physically drained, but they were emotionally drained as well, and Vaati especially seemed to be affected. He'd retreated into himself, hunching his shoulders with a body language that clearly said he didn't want to be bothered by anyone for some time.

Sheik didn't blame him. He, too, was also distressed upon hearing from the man that nothing awaited them at the end of their journey except 'despair.' Thuban's promise that they would be granted answers at the end of their journey was the only thing that kept them going; the looming thought that perhaps it wasn't worth it certainly destroyed any motivation and hope.

He exhaled. He could hear the sound of the slithering starting up in the distance outside; a signal that the serpent, Ammit, was awake. He wasn't looking forward to the walk tomorrow which would undoubtedly be the toughest yet. Sheik rolled over on his stomach. They were going to need sleep in order to have enough energy for tomorrow, but he was hesitant about allowing himself to rest, unsure if he was ready to face the glimpses of his past after all the hints so far that suggested he wouldn't like what he saw. He glanced over at Vaati who was still sitting huddled up in a corner, poking at the fire with a stick from time to time.

It seemed he wasn't the only one who was having trouble falling asleep.

Vaati looked up, and their gaze met. He stopped poking at the fire for a bit, tossing the stick into the fire with a sigh. He'd been mulling over some thoughts, and his lips flattened as he turned away again, wondering if he should say anything or not. He looked like he wanted Sheik to say something first, but Sheik wasn't one to force conversations.

Vaati stood up and walked over to where Sheik was lying on the ground and sat next to him. "I need to make something clear," he said eventually. His words were slow and deliberate, like he was going over what he wanted to say several times in his head before he finally said them.

Sheik sat up. This was the first time since they'd encountered the man with the Keaton mask that Vaati seemed like he wanted to talk, and he wanted to let him know that he had his full attention.

"I don't care what he thinks of the truth," Vaati said. His voice had been uncertain at first, but they became more assured with time. He spoke now with that stubbornness that had gotten him this far across the desert. "We're going to keep going until we find out what in Din happened to us."

Sheik blinked, and he watched as Vaati's eyes narrowed into a determined glare as he stared into the fire. Then, Sheik smiled to himself and he nodded in agreement before he rested his chin on his knee.

Vaati was right; they couldn't give up. This seemed like an obvious thing, of course, since it wasn't like the two of them had anywhere else to go except forward. However, the conversation with the man earlier had caused a cloud of doubt to hang over their heads, their hearts heavy with the destructive thought, "what was the point?" It had been eating them up until now.

Vaati was right. They couldn't give up. It didn't matter if there was no point. They weren't pursuing their final destination for a happy ending: they were pushing onwards for the truth. It might be frightening, and it might not be something they wished they'd learned, but their past was their own and they deserved to reclaim it. Who were they, without their pasts?

From this point onward, they weren't going to let anyone, not Thuban or any mysterious masked people, to dissuade them from pursuing the truth.

"We'll keep going," Sheik affirmed. "I admit I had doubts, but we'll keep going."

"We're not giving up."

"No."

The heavy atmosphere between them seemed to lift, then. They weren't alone, they were in this together, and the task of making it across was less daunting with that thought. Until now, they'd both had some level of caution about the other: they were strangers, and they were both obstinately independent, not wanting to rely on anyone but themselves.

However, something had changed. Sheik wasn't entirely sure what had changed in this moment, but if he had to look back and think of when they started seeing each other as part of a team, this was it. Vaati was no longer just a 'stranger chained to his leg,' but a partner. Undoubtedly they were going to encounter more things that would try and break their resolve, and they were going to need to remind each other that they would earn the truth no matter what. It was them, together, against the strange and dangerous desert.

Sheik felt his neck nod down and his eyes were becoming heavy lidded. The fatigue was starting to hit, and his body was telling him to rest. "We should probably sleep soon," he said. They had a long walk ahead of them tomorrow. He looked over to where Vaati had sat next to him by the fire. Vaati's expression was still set in a glower, but his eyes were becoming unfocused. At the same time, he seemed determined not to fall asleep, and with every slow blink his glare towards the fire intensified. Vaati looked so focused on not falling asleep that he didn't seem to have heard what Sheik had said.

It took a while for Vaati to notice that Sheik was waiting for a response. He gave a small shake of his head, and then muttered something unintelligible under his breath. Haggard and worn, he rubbed his head against his knee, and he appeared reluctant to fall asleep regardless of how much he looked like he needed it.

Vaati rubbed his shoulders and shook his head again. It didn't escape Sheik's notice that there was a tremor in his shoulders, though he tried to hide it. "Damn it, it's cold," he muttered.

The desert night was cold, colder than it had been any night before, but Sheik had a feeling that there was more to it than the chill in the air: Vaati's fingers were digging into the folds of his tunic like claws as he sat huddled in front of the fire.

Sheik remembered the night before, with Vaati gripping on to his arm, tormented by something in his dreams.

_Don't trap me there alone._

Sheik stirred, and tilted his head towards Vaati who was still hunched over by the fire, trying to remain awake for as long as possible. Then, the blonde took a small breath, and came to some kind of conclusion. No longer with the cautious hesitation that he'd had the night before, he reached across with a swift movement and draped an arm over Vaati's shoulders.

The action surprised Vaati, and he jerked away, trying to throw the arm off of him in a gut reaction.

"… It's cold," Sheik lied, ignoring Vaati's surprised scowl that demanded to know just what he was doing.

For a moment it looked like Vaati was going to shove him away, but time passed and he never did. Instead he went back to glowering at the fire with tired eyes, allowing Sheik's arm to rest around his shoulders. He made a show of being annoyed and he grunted irritably, but he acknowledged the gesture and seemed almost grateful for it. His shoulders became less tense, and the mistrusting glow in his eyes dimmed. His fingers were no longer claw-like or digging into his own arm.

After some time, Sheik felt a tentative weight press against his chest as Vaati's exhaustion got the best of him. He'd forfeit the cautious space that he'd maintained around himself, and had slowly, unknowingly, leaned against Sheik as though he were too tired to hold himself upright. He was so quiet that the only reason why Sheik knew that he hadn't fallen asleep was because he was still awake as well.

Sheik moved his arm in a more comfortable position around Vaati's shoulder, and then rested his own tired head back on his knee. Sheik tried not to drift off into sleep first, no matter how much his body demanded it, because he knew the reason why Vaati was determined to remain awake for a while longer.

"… Sheik."

Sheik opened his eyes. The gravity in Vaati's voice was concerning, and he lifted his head slightly to acknowledge that he was listening.

"I think we were enemies, once."

And there it was, the thought that both of them had been avoiding ever since the Grand Scribe's warning, and the confirmation from the robed man that their greatest enemy was neither the desert nor the serpent, but something much closer. Sheik's silence confirmed that he agreed with Vaati's suspicions.

Rather than create a rift between the two of them, the admission instead seemed to clear some of the air, to release the breath they'd both been holding. It was no longer suffocating.

Sheik buried his face into the shoulders leaned against him. He still said nothing in response, but instead gently tightened his hold around the other. He didn't understand why they were here or what they had done, but the fact that they had probably been enemies before was irrelevant now when they needed to get through this ordeal together. Vaati seemed to understand this as well.

He still hadn't pulled away yet.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

" _I have been watching your progress. I am pleased how far you have come so far. Not everyone makes it as far as you have."_

Sheik looked around wildly when he heard the hollow, echoing voice with the undertone of a growl that he identified as Thuban's. Vaati was no longer with him, and he felt an emptiness where the warm companionship was now missing. The chain around his ankles were no longer there. He stopped looking for him when he realized that there was something wrong with where he found himself.

He was floating in a black expanse dotted with what he assumed were stars. Within the dark murk of the void, he saw the same pair of golden eyes that he'd seen earlier within the sandstorm that had taken the robed man away. As soon as their eyes met, the outline of the black Keaton became clearer, until he was looking at the same fox he'd met when he'd first woken in the desert.

"Is this a dream?" Sheik asked Thuban, understanding that what he was seeing was not real. The last thing he remembered was fighting to stay awake, and he vaguely recalled succumbing and falling asleep. He'd fully expected to continue seeing more pieces of his past tonight, and was apprehensive to find instead the black Keaton before him.

Thuban confirmed with a nod. _"I've decided to do something a little different tonight. I understand that your conversation with the Drifter had cast some doubt on the worth of travelling across the grueling desert to learn the truth. I wanted to give you another offer that would allow you to learn the truth without making the difficult journey across the sands. However, before I talk to you about my offer, I believe you have earned yourself a proper introduction."_

With this, Thuban squared their shoulders and looked down their pointed nose at Sheik. Instantly there was an intimidating aura about them, kind of like the dry crackle of air just before a thunderstorm. It was the kind of aura that demanded attention, and for the second time Sheik had a passing thought that Thuban must be at least some kind of powerful spirit. Their gold ringed tail was curved slightly upwards, like a scorpion.

" _I have many titles, but you may know me as Thuban, Arbiter of the Wastes,"_ Thuban revealed, _"I am the reigning deity of this place, and I have brought you and your companion here so I can judge your worth."_

Sheik couldn't hide his frown. A god. This was worse than if Thuban had simply been a powerful spirit of some kind. He didn't remember anything about gods of course, but creatures that powerful could never be good news. This revelation didn't make him feel any better about their situation, and he was left with as many answers as he'd started with. What had he and Vaati done to gain the attention of a _god_?

"Am I allowed to ask just what kind of deity you are?" Sheik asked, already predicting the Keaton's answer. The response was exactly what he'd expected.

" _You may ask, but do not expect answers."_

Oh well. At least he'd tried.

" _Now, for the offer,"_ Thuban said. _"The path ahead will become more difficult with every night. You are not guaranteed to survive, and very few ever make it to the end. However, I am willing to help you."_

Sheik probably should have felt grateful about the prospect of help from a god, but he was having a hard time being sincerely enthusiastic about it. Perhaps it was because he, a mortal, couldn't understand the mannerisms of a god, but the stone-like stillness of the Keaton's face and the golden eyes that seemed to look past him, not at him, struck him as creepy and untrustworthy.

" _I will return your memories and all the answers you seek in exchange for something I want. Not only that, but I will allow you to escape this desert. Normally I only extend an offer for truth, but because your actions have intrigued me, I will also allow you to find a way out of this place."_

During the conversation, Thuban had leaned closer towards Sheik, scrutinizing his every reaction with curiosity. They watched Sheik's brows furrow in increasing unease, and their lips pulled back into the gold-fanged grin.

Sheik did his best not to appear rattled, but being that close to a supposed god that was highly unsettling. He wondered briefly just what kind of actions aside from simply trying to stay alive had piqued this god's curiosity, but his thoughts became distracted under the Keaton's golden gaze.

"And what is it that you want me to do?"

Suddenly, Sheik felt something cold touching his fingers, and he looked down to see that he was now holding a small object in his hands. It was a beautiful knife, with gold swirls following the gentle curve of the obsidian blade. He looked up again towards the black Keaton, his red eyes searching for an explanation regarding the weapon that was in his hands.

Thuban's unnerving grin hadn't shifted once during this time. Their fangs clacked together when they explained to Sheik the conditions of escaping the desert, as well as learning the truth.

A pit formed in Sheik's stomach when he heard Thuban's conditions.


	8. Promise

_The princess, too, is defeated. Everyone believes her to be dead, and with her the light of hope is distinguished. Hyrule falls to despair. The world turns to darkness._

_Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_I am the god of this realm. I am Thuban, Arbiter of the Wastes. I brought you and your companion here so that I can judge your worth._

Vaati clenched his fists, his face contorted into a snarl as he remembered the conversation he'd had with the black Keaton in his dreams last night. He'd woken up with a chill, and as soon as he'd opened his eyes he'd felt Sheik stir beside him. He remembered pushing the other away, an instinctive reaction as he wrenched Sheik's arm away from him and he'd abruptly distanced himself. He hadn't been able to bring himself to look Sheik in the eye after Thuban's conversation last night, and he could only guess what Sheik was thinking about his suddenly cold reaction.

He suspected that Sheik may have been made the same offer by Thuban, but that was all it was: a suspicion. It wasn't like it was something he could simply ask Sheik. Thuban's offer was something he had to keep to himself.

He absentmindedly reached into his bag and pulled out a beautiful obsidian dagger with gold swirls embossed in it.

What would he and Sheik even talk about, even if he somehow did find the nerve to bring it up? There was nothing to discuss. It wouldn't change anything…

" _I will tell you everything, and return all of your memories. Not only that, but I will allow you to leave this place as soon as you complete the task that only you can do." Thuban said with that same eerie golden grin on their face. He knew then that the deal would be nothing good, and he listened cautiously as the Keaton continued, presenting him with a black knife made of polished stone and engraved with gold. "End your companion's life with this knife. That is all that you have to do."_

He should have refused immediately, but for some reason he found that a part of him was considering the deal. A part of him was taking the offer seriously, thinking about the consequences, how quickly he would be able to do it, and how much of a risk it posed to him. It was just like that time when a part of him had considered leaving Sheik out in the dust when they'd only found enough food and water for one of them.

He did not mind Sheik. In fact, he would admit that he was good company. But still he considered Thuban's offer with cold, calculating logic.

Vaati turned the dagger over in his hands, feeling the weight of it within his palms and confirming that what he'd dreamed last night had been real. He placed the dagger out of sight in his bag again, and then brought his steepled fingers in front of his face thoughtfully.

Though a part of him almost immediately considered Thuban's deal, there was another part of him that observed his coldblooded side with horrified fascination. He knew on some level that to even think about the offer seriously was wrong, and he knew especially so after Sheik had told him he would rather die honorably than to sacrifice an innocent out of selfishness. It was wrong. He knew that.

But to continue to think about the offer and turn it over in his head, all while knowing it was wrong to do so, probably made him an even more despicable person.

" _This offer intrigues you," Thuban observed. "You know that you won't last many more nights."_

_And that was the heart of it. Vaati knew that Thuban was telling the truth when they said that surviving would become more difficult the further they progressed. He barely knew Sheik at all, and he was beginning to have suspicions that he and Sheik used to be enemies: wouldn't it make sense to take Thuban's offer if surviving the journey across the desert became too difficult? What point was there if they both died, trying to uphold moral ideals? Preservation of honor? Was life worth such an abstract concept?_

_Should it really be any of his business to care about what happens to someone he hardly knows, and someone who might even pose a threat to him?_

_Was it really murder if he did it out of self-preservation?_

" _What would you gain from this offer?" Vaati asked._

Vaati snorted to himself, recalling the Arbiter's answer. Their answer had been so obvious that he'd felt silly for even asking. "My task is to judge the worth of those who stand before me," they'd told him, "and this is just one way to determine if you are deserving of the truth."

It all went back to Thuban's obsession with judging if they were deserving. Considering they had no way of knowing just what kind of criteria the god was using to judge them, it was anyone's guess how this offer had anything to do with being 'deserving' (in the same way it was anyone's guess how trekking across the desert would also prove one's worth). Still, Thuban's answer had been very fitting for what Vaati imagined would be a godly answer: annoyingly vague and yet impossible to argue against.

However, if it could be assumed that Thuban spoke true, then, as crazy and senseless as it seemed on the surface, murdering Sheik would make him 'deserving' of the truth and freedom. Conversely, it would make Sheik 'deserving' if he killed Vaati, and for that reason, Vaati suspected that Sheik had been made the exact same offer.

By that logic, he had to be cautious of Sheik. No, if he didn't strike first, then Sheik may decide before he did to take Thuban up on their offer. If the journey across the desert became too difficult, there was a tempting, simple solution for them both, and he'd be damned if he wasn't the one to come out of this alive. Sheik would undoubtedly try to walk the high moral ground for as long as possible, but desperation could break a man into something unrecognizable from what he'd been before. He didn't trust Sheik's idealism enough to trust that black blade with him. Eventually Sheik would break. Eventually, Sheik would stab him in the back.

Vaati's eyes narrowed behind his steepled fingers.

Sheik… he had to go. It was truly unfortunate and he hated that it would come to this, but logically this was the option that was the least costly. It wasn't anything personal, and he would probably learn to feel disappointment when Sheik died (or, at least something different to feel than the low-burning anger that he couldn't quite suppress), but he knew he was completely justified in his conclusion to kill him. After all, this may have been what the Grand Scribe and the robed man had warned them about. It was likely that Thuban had made the same offer to others who'd come this far before them, and so it fit that their greatest enemy was the companion they were chained to.

It fit. It made sense.

And the despair that awaited them? Of course, it must represent the regret at having to shed blood. Everything made sense. This had to be the answer.

A cold glint appeared in Vaati's eyes and his expression steeled with determination. _I'm completely justified,_ he told himself. _As much as I despise the black Keaton, I'm not so stubborn as to refuse an offer that can only benefit me. If I don't kill Sheik now, he will surely try to kill me later._

The only difficulty now was to devise a plan on how, exactly, to kill him. Sheik was much more physically capable than he was, that much was clear after their long hikes across the unforgiving desert. While he would have preferred to kill him in his sleep, that, too was impossible since as soon as one of them fell asleep, so did the other. The dagger felt comfortable in his hands and he knew he would be able to fight with it, but he had a feeling that Sheik was also adept with a blade. He preferred to avoid a direct confrontation, but was that what Thuban was aiming for? Would they have to duel? How could he trick Sheik into a position of weakness?

Perhaps he could take advantage of his compassion? He'd noticed that Sheik was afflicted with 'kindness.' It was something about him that Vaati would grudgingly admit was what made him so tolerable, and perhaps… he could use that. Lower his guard a little, and then strike.

Or maybe Sheik, to use Thuban's words, deserved a one on one fight, to die facing him. At least then he would go with closure, knowing the reason why Vaati needed him to die.

_It's justified._

_I barely know him._

_We're probably enemies, anyway._

_It's not murder if I'm doing it to survive._

And then, another voice in his head.

_Do you search for justifications because you know that this is wrong?_

Vaati let out a short hiss.

_I only care to survive. I only care to WIN._

His eyes shot towards Sheik, his right hand lingering on the bag that contained the damning weapon. He expected to see the blond in his usual state of waiting patiently for him to start a conversation, but he was surprised when he saw a very different Sheik than what he was used to.

Anger.

The anger etched into the creases of Sheik's silent snarl was so terrible that Vaati was taken aback by it. Vaati momentarily forgot that he'd been in the middle of plotting Sheik's murder, and his voice betrayed genuine concern. "Sheik?" he asked.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_How dare they?_

Sheik was outraged, and he'd woken up still seething from the conversation with Thuban last night. He'd been so angry that he hadn't noticed how Vaati had pushed away from him. He'd been so angry that he hadn't noticed that he'd been sitting still for the past ten minutes, visibly fuming from rage with his knuckles turning white from clenched fists.

The black Keaton had offered an escape from this world, as well as the truth about his past, in exchange for Vaati's life. The creature had had the nerve to grin at him, almost like they expected him to seriously consider the offer.

It offended him to his very core, and he'd shouted threats to the Keaton, nearly stabbing them with the very blade that they offered to him.

Killing an innocent person was never, _never_ justified, even if it were for the sake of self-preservation. It didn't matter that he may never learn the truth if he didn't take the offer. It didn't matter that he barely knew Vaati, or that they might have once been enemies. No amount of excuses would make the act of murdering an innocent okay, and for Thuban to present the offer to him like it was something he would ever consider - he couldn't put to words just how angry that made him.

Once Thuban had gotten over their surprise at Sheik's outburst, they'd made it clear that they were annoyed by his tone towards them. Their grin had vanished, replaced with a stony expression. "You do not have to act on this offer now, I am only presenting it to you as an option," they'd said, and something about their tone made Sheik have second thoughts about yelling at a presumed god, "There may come a time when you will be thankful for the offer."

Thankful. _Thankful._ They'd had the nerve to talk to him like they were doing him a favor. If Sheik didn't think that Thuban would decide to smite him for it, he would have spat in their furry face.

Since waking, Sheik had yet to look inside his bag where he knew Thuban's blade was. The fox had explained that he would find the obsidian blade there should he ever need it. _I will NEVER need it._

The conversation from last night plagued his head, and the more he thought about it the more upset he became. Thuban had prodded him, trying to convince him not to dismiss his offer by trying to get him to question Vaati's character.

" _Do you think your companion is good?" Thuban asked._

" _I think he does not deserve to be sacrificed for my own selfish needs," he replied, biting his tongue and keeping himself from adding some additional choice barbs directed towards the Keaton._

" _Then why do you avoid travel at night?"_

" _Because good is not the same as having never made a mistake."_

Thuban had found his response amusing, though he didn't say why before he disappeared.

Somehow, having Thuban insist that he would eventually consider taking the offer made him that much more determined to prove them wrong. It was then that Sheik decided that he was going to do whatever it takes to save Vaati, to save his companion, from this desolate world, even if it meant that he would have to risk his own life to do it. It would be the biggest 'fuck you' to the god that had, for whatever reason, singled him and Vaati out for whatever game it was they were playing.

Sheik stood up abruptly as he came to this decision, the chains around his feet rattling loudly from the sudden movement. He turned on his heel, whirling towards Vaati who was looking at him in surprise from where he was sitting on the ground. Vaati was unaware of how he was leaning back away from the blond, and his fingers instinctively reached for the bag next to him that contained the obsidian knife. Vaati nearly grabbed the knife out of his bag right then and there when Sheik stormed over to him with an intense glare, thinking that Sheik had decided to attack him.

Just before Vaati's fingers found his knife, he was stunned by the weight of Sheik's hands on his shoulders, gripping him firmly. Vaati was so shocked that he didn't think to push him away, and he froze before he could take the knife out of his bag.

" _Vaati,_ " Sheik said harshly.

Vaati blinked. He had no idea how to respond, and so he sat there, frozen and confused.

"No matter what happens, I swear to you, you're going to get out of this desert alive."

Vaati blinked again. Again, he had no idea how to respond, and so he continued to sit there, frozen and confused. He was pointedly aware that Sheik's hands were still gripping his shoulders, and yet he did nothing to shrug them off. Instead, he stared back at Sheik's earnest red eyes, still enraged by something like he wanted to burn down the world. It took a few seconds for him to make sense of the words that had been declared, and then he had to blink again because he was having difficulty understanding them.

Eventually, he managed to vocalize a weak, "Uh…?"

Sheik's eyes narrowed, and then he dropped his hands and gave Vaati some distance as he sat crouched in front of him. "It's a promise," Sheik said, calmer now, though he still sounded angry. The anger wasn't directed at Vaati, however, and upon realizing that the pale youth stopped reaching for his knife. Sheik continued quietly, "I just felt the need to tell you that."

Vaati coughed, clearing his throat. "I… see." He opened his mouth to ask a question, and then shut it when he realized he already knew the answer. He tried to start again, and then stopped once more when he realized how stupid his question would be.

 _What's this all of a sudden?_ he could have asked, but he already knew what had set Sheik off. Thuban. He'd undoubtedly received the same offer.

 _Is everything okay?_ was another question, but it was obvious that things weren't okay, and the only reason why he'd ask such a question was to fill in the silence with pointless conversation.

 _We'll get through this together,_ was another thing he could have said, but it was such an obvious lie that it would only make him cringe to say it. He'd been planning on all the ways he could kill Sheik only moments before, and yet Sheik was just…

How? Why? How could Sheik say that? Was it some kind of plan to get him to lower his guard, to get him to trust him so that when the moment was right he could kill him? But then why would he do something so obvious to let him know that Thuban had offered the same thing to him as well?

No… no the fool actually believed it. He actually believed that he would save him. It made no sense. Did he not see that he would be lying with such a promise? It was a promise Sheik would not be able to keep. He would crumble. Would try to kill him, just as he, too, would try to kill Sheik.

The tenseness in the corners of Vaati's eyes softened, and he looked down at his hand that had been reaching for the deadly weapon. Sheik had already stood up and was walking around the cave several feet away, jamming things into his provisions bag with a little more force than necessary. Vaati could hear the blond muttering angrily to himself, and a few times he caught him speaking the Keaton's name bitterly.

Vaati let out a small sigh as he continued to look at his empty hand. He still believed that he would eventually have to take Thuban up on his offer, because if he didn't then Sheik probably would. He still believed that, but that voice was quieter now, and less certain. Somehow, even though he knew Sheik's words were an empty promise, he almost believed him. He… _wanted_ to believe him, even though he knew he couldn't.

_I'm not giving up. I have faith that there's a better answer than turning on each other._

Vaati smirked bitterly to himself, remembering Sheik's words from the day before. _Faith huh?_

"Are you ready to go?"

Vaati looked up to see that Sheik had finished packing for the journey ahead. He was holding out his hand to him, impatient to continue their journey and leave the desert behind.

Vaati studied the outstretched hand for a few seconds, contemplating it.

 _Well,_ he thought, and he tentatively took his hand, letting Sheik help him up.

_I don't have faith._

_But maybe I'll give you a chance._


	9. The Fallen Palace

_The princess, however, lives. She hides herself with a different identity, a young Sheikah man. But he is a fake Sheikah. He abandons his kingdom, and allows the demon to burn the world to ash. The Sheikah waits in the shadows while the ground is painted with the blood of everyone he ever loved._

_Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vaati expected the upcoming leg of their journey to be the most difficult one yet, and he'd been correct. While the most difficult part about the previous treks had been the burning sun and the full-day walk across the sand under the baking heat, this time, they'd immediately encountered a small sandstorm that pushed against them. It wasn't a powerful storm, but it was enough to make it exhausting to walk against the wind over the course of several hours, and the sand that got whipped up into their eyes made it even more difficult. He and Sheik took turns taking the front to shield the one in the back from the worst of the wind, and progress was painfully slow.

He dreaded the thought of what would happen if they encountered a more powerful storm later. He had a feeling that this was just a warning of what awaited them further.

However, Vaati kept going, and a part of it was because of how Sheik believed that they could make it. Faith. Vaati thought it foolish, but somehow, having it shoved in his face time and time again almost made him believe it, too.

Vaati didn't have a good sense of time since he couldn't look up at the sun lest he get sand in his eyes, but he guessed that it had been about two hours when Sheik, who'd been taking the lead at the time, shouted something. He thought he'd misheard, because there was no way that they would have come upon the next landmark shelter so quickly, but Sheik shouted again and there was no mistaking it.

"Buildings! About a mile ahead," Sheik said between coughs from getting sand blown into his face.

 _Already?_ Vaati thought, trying not to be too hopeful in case it turned out to be a disappointment. He shielded his eyes from the wind pushing against them, and he looked in the direction that the compass on his hand pointed.

There, just ahead, was a shadow of white marble. It looked like a pillar jutting out of the sand, and there were more silhouettes behind it of a large, dilapidated structure.

Eager to escape the wind and the sand, the two of them quickened their pace towards the marble ruins.

It took them another fifteen minutes or so to reach it, but it had been their shortest trek across the desert. The small storm that they had encountered had been tiring, but now that they were here, Vaati thought that it had been the easiest journey thus far. The ease of it made him suspicious, but he kept his thoughts to himself for now.

The storm subsided into an unnatural calm as soon as they were at the foot of the marble pillar that they'd seen earlier. The shadow of a collapsed building loomed: the remnants of what had once been a brilliant palace made of white. As the two boys dusted the sand away from their faces and their clothes, they gazed at the ruins in awe.

It was haunting. Vaati could just imagine how it had once been, standing proudly in its full glory with nobles in rich garb strolling through its regal, carved arches. The amount of craftsmanship and expense that must have gone into making such a vast palace made completely out of polished white marble was incredible, and Vaati could only wonder what kind of kings and queens had once ruled from it. Now, however, it was empty and broken, tilting on its foundations while it became buried within the desert sands. In the distance, he could hear the lonely howl of the wind as it rushed between the lifeless halls of the shattered palace.

Vaati glanced up at the sun. It was still midday, the fastest they'd ever made it to their next shelter point. Beside him, he saw Sheik also look briefly up at the sun, and he knew that they'd thought the same thing. When he noticed Sheik tense, he knew that he wasn't the only one who was uneasy about the relative ease with which they'd made it to the palace.

Sheik exchanged glances with him, and nodded slowly. _Be careful_ , was the silent message, and Vaati nodded in agreement.

They approached the palace and stepped inside within the cool shade. The first room inside was filled with sand from where the wind had blown it in with the walls tilted at an angle, but some of the chambers further in appeared to still be erect. They ducked beneath the toppled doorways and pressed deeper into the palace, where their compass pointed, not knowing what they would find.

Each room was covered in arches, and each room glowed from the sun filtering in through the tall windows. The open architecture made it seem like the palace had been built in such a way to allow fresh air to move freely from chamber to chamber. As dead as it now was, it was still a beautiful yet haunting place.

Eventually, they made it to the end of the long chain of chambers and corridors, and back out in the sun on the other side of the palace. Vaati was no longer surprised when he found that the sun had already sunk to the edge of the horizon even though he was certain that it had taken no more than half an hour for them to walk through the palace: this desert was a strange place, and normal rules of time didn't seem to apply.

Beyond the door was a long staircase leading up a platform, and he squinted at the figure he could barely make out sitting at the top of it, looking out towards the setting sun. A person. He pointed at the figure to Sheik, and they decided to make the climb to meet them.

"Ah, more chained travelers. Little do they know their lives are intertwined," Vaati heard the figure mumble under their breath as they approached. From the cracked, weary voice, he could tell that it was an elderly woman. Her grey hair was piled back in a tall bun on top of her head, but beyond that her features were hidden with a black and gold Keaton mask in the likes of the Arbiter of the Wastes. Long sand-colored robes like the one the man they'd encountered earlier draped over her hunched back. "Thuban must have taken a special interest in you for you to have made it this far."

"Somehow I doubt that," Vaati scoffed, thinking about Thuban's eagerness to get him and Sheik to kill each other. He looked around their surroundings. From the raised platform, he could see most of the desert as well as additional wings of the broken Palace that they hadn't explored yet. He was surprised by the maze-like vastness of the Palace, and he could see no end to the domes and arches half-buried in the shifting dunes. "What is this place?"

"They used to call this the Palace of Winds. Apparently, it once floated in the sky, though you can see the pathetic state it's now in," the woman replied, in that same tired tone the robed man had used, like she'd heard the same questions numerous times before. "It's a wretched place, now," she added.

Wretched. It sure was a good word for it, Vaati thought. He couldn't quite put a finger on it, but he couldn't shake the mixed feelings he had about the place. On one hand, he was filled with awe every time he stepped through the tall, open arches of the silent halls. On the other hand, he had a feeling that the palace didn't belong here, and that it was… _angry_ almost. It was ridiculous to think that an inanimate place would have any sort of feelings, but he felt that he could understand the injustice done to it somehow. It didn't _belong_ here.

Or maybe he was just projecting his own feelings at the palace.

"What happened to it?" he asked, "And what happened to all the other places we passed? They look like people lived there, once, but now everything's been abandoned."

"People aren't the only things that die."

"But what happened to the people?" Vaati repeated, his voice rising out of frustration from the unhelpfully cryptic remark.

"Don't know. Don't care."

Vaati's eye twitched, and he was just about considering threatening an old woman a good foot shorter than him when he felt a firm hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it off with a scowl, though he backed down at Sheik's patient but stern look. _Have it your way,_ he shot silently with a pointed huff.

"We met another like you, earlier," Sheik joined the conversation.

The old woman barely reacted, once again seemingly bored with the same phrases she'd heard from travelers before them. "Then you must know that there is nothing I can tell you that you don't already know," she drawled. Then, she added bitterly, "I have seen the same story already. I know how yours will end."

"Does Thuban keep you here so that you can taunt us in their place?" Vaati said scornfully.

This time, the woman reacted. She lifted her head slightly, and then she threw her head back and barked a laugh that was as soulless as the empty palace. "Taunt you? Ha!" she brought a withered hand to her masked face, holding it as she cackled to herself. She seemed to pay no attention to Vaati who had a thoroughly offended look on his face and muttered some inaudible words to herself. Then, she finally said a little louder, "No, I suppose he keeps me here so that you may taunt me." When the two boys looked at her blankly in surprise, she sighed. "You both have something that I used to have, and foolishly lost."

"I don't suppose you can tell us more?" Sheik asked with much more patience than what Vaati could have managed. The two of them weren't at all surprised by the woman's answer.

"No," she said bluntly. "It won't matter, anyway. The storm you came through was but a sign that the desert will actively try to impede your progress now. Few make it to the Palace. Fewer still survive it."

The woman's words reminded Vaati of Thuban's offer, and he couldn't help but think that their timing for presenting it made sense. Things would become difficult, and a certain escape would be tempting. His eyes wandered towards Sheik standing next to him. _Does he still believe we'll make it?_ he wondered. While he'd decided to give his companion a chance, he still harbored some skepticism. Sheik, however, met the woman's gaze unflinchingly, almost like he hadn't even heard her doubtful comments. _He still believes it, doesn't he…_

"You wouldn't happen to know about the Grand Scribe, would you?" Sheik asked.

The woman perked up attentively, alert like she'd heard something different for the first time in years. Her back straightened, and she raised her chin towards the blond traveler. "Who?"

"The author of this book." Sheik rummaged for the scribe's book, and then held it out to her for her to see. The woman took its red canvas covers in her hands and traced the gold wording on it with her bony fingers, while Sheik explained, "We've found pages of their writing at each destination point, but we haven't found the one for this place yet. It's given us advice on how to move forward, and if we can find the page for the Palace-"

"Where did you find this?" the woman suddenly snapped, tapping her finger on the pages she'd opened. Her tone was harsh and accusing, and the two boys were taken aback by how she seemed to be regarding them like they were cheaters in some game.

"In a tower, not far from where we first woke up," Sheik replied. Vaati nodded in agreement when the black vulpine mask swung his way, demanding an answer from him as well.

Had it been a bad idea to show the woman the book? They'd assumed that she, like the robed man from the day before, was more on their side than the Keaton's but maybe they'd been wrong…

It was with a sigh of relief that Vaati and Sheik took back the book when the woman finally handed it back to them. She leaned back, no longer pushing her face towards them imposingly, and instead chuckled to herself defeatedly. "Interesting," she said, hanging her masked head thoughtfully, "I take it that Thuban would already know that you have something like this. Since they haven't taken it away from you, they intend for you to have it." She turned away, looking out towards the empty desert. "What are you thinking, Thuban?" she murmured.

Cautiously, Sheik placed the book back into his bag. "Then you've never heard of the Grand Scribe before?"

"No. Unless…" she paused, a thought coming to her. She sat still for some time, to the point where Vaati began to wonder if she was still awake behind that mask at all. However, she eventually shifted her weight, speaking slowly with careful words. "There are other gods aside from the Arbiter. Back before I arrived here, I used to consort with those beyond the mortal realm. I didn't know it then, but I'd had dealings with the Arbiter long before they ensnared me here."

The two listened attentively, taking in every word. This was the first time that anyone had mentioned anything about something that had happened in the past, and Vaati went over the words over and over again in his head. They thirsted for history, even if it wasn't theirs.

"Thuban was one of the rare gods who took an interest in mortals, you see, but there was another," she continued, "Phact."

Vaati peered into the Keaton mask, searching it for any kind of hint that would tell him more about who this woman was. Indeed, who was she? What kind of a person was this woman, who'd associated herself with creatures that were gods?

"But then who are you to have earned the eye of not just one god, but two?" she wondered aloud, and she, too, looked from Vaati to Sheik with the same cautious curiosity that they considered her.

Vaati scowled. "And who are you to have been dealing with beings like gods?"

"A foolish old woman, that's who," she snapped, her voice pained, hurt, and filled with regret. Gone was her bored, resigned tone from earlier, and her hands shook with emotion. "I've lost everything here. Everything! My name is inconsequential to you anyway. You won't make it."

"Then we'll prove you wrong. Please, tell us who you are."

Vaati raised an eyebrow at Sheik who'd stepped forward. _We?_

The woman gave a harsh laugh. "So many who came before you said the same thing, and they all failed."

"We're not like them."

"No, you are exactly like them. Your bond is too weak, I can see that from one look at you both," the woman snorted. She turned her chin towards Vaati, who, despite himself, had given a small nod and a shrug in agreement. "When you're truly in danger, when your back is pressed against the wall and you're facing death, you will sacrifice the other to save yourself," she said, still watching Vaati like he was proof enough that Sheik was going to fail.

Sheik, however, remained unfazed. "I already know that Vaati will kill me if it comes to it, but I don't resent him for that," he replied bluntly, to which Vaati snapped his head around towards him in surprise. "I don't expect Vaati to want to save me. It's only natural for people to try to save themselves."

Vaati stared at his companion who seemed so sure of himself, so confident in his promise to get him out of this mess, even while knowing that Vaati had been considering ending his life. _So you did know about the knife, and yet…_

Sheik continued, ignoring Vaati staring at him in surprise. "But I'm not afraid of what might happen in the future. I know that I have done something horrible in my past, and that I have already failed too many people. I hadn't been able to save the people I was supposed to save. If this can be atonement…" he trailed off momentarily and his face became ashen from some memory, which Vaati could only guess had something to do with the dreams they'd been having. "I don't know about Vaati, but I took an oath not to betray anyone else for my own life."

The sand drifted along their feet as both the woman and Vaati stared at Sheik in silence. Vaati eventually turned his head away to mull on his own thoughts, while the woman's expression remained impossible to read, hidden behind her mask. By the time she finally stirred to respond to the blonde's unshakeable faith, the sun had dipped far enough to summon the distant rustling of Ammit in the sands.

"Hmph. Go on, then. You only remind me of my own failures, and I find little joy in talking to you," she muttered under her breath, waving a wrinkled hand to shoo them away. Sheik, however, remained stubborn: the woman was still here, still talking, and he needed to know more.

"What do you mean by that?"

The woman groaned. "Go on, go on. I've spoken enough, and I cannot answer your questions. You'll summon the black fox themselves at this rate."

"Can we at least have your name?"

She stilled, and rather than dismiss him immediately as she'd done earlier, she lowered her hand and seemed to consider his request. After a while, she gave a tired sigh. "Koume."

"Thank you, Koume," Sheik smiled gratefully.

"Hmph. And for what, I wonder?" Though she scoffed, there was a hint of an amused smile behind a barely audible chuckle.

"For giving us the determination to prove you wrong. We'll make it. You'll see."

_Us?_

Again, Vaati was thrown off by his companion's insistence to talk about them as though they were a team. As though they'd never once thought about killing each other. He blinked, watching Sheik turn and make his way down the stairs again, and then he turned back around to the masked woman. She was looking at him, now, as though silently asking him what he was going to do about it.

With a huff, he turned and followed Sheik, leaving the question unanswered. Sheik's faith in them still surprised him, especially knowing now that the blonde had been fully aware of Thuban's deal. His faith was foolish, but somehow… one couldn't help but respect that kind of stupidity.

The woman gave a single nod as the two boys left her to continue their journey. She, too, thought the stubborn one to be foolish, and in all the time she had spent sitting out here in this desolate wasteland she'd never met anyone like him. Those that made it this far often harbored pessimistic realism that they wouldn't make it. Every single traveler she'd met who'd made it to the end did so by taking Thuban's deal. Not a single pair she'd ever met had made it to the end on their own strength.

But those two… they just might succeed. It was a slim possibility, but more of a possibility than any pair she'd met. She almost wanted them to succeed, even though the harshness of the desert had stolen her ability to care about what happened to those she met. Success meant Truth, but at least… at least earning it without resorting to the Keaton's deal would be more merciful.

She shifted where she sat, though it was a redundant gesture since she'd long since lost the ability to feel her legs. She would sit here for Thuban knew how long, until another pair of travelers came upon this place to ask her the same questions, and so time would repeat. She'd been resigned for things to remain this way, as the consequences of leaving frightened her. However…

Chuckling to herself, she shook her head. _Damned that boy and his infectious resolve_.

"If only they knew. The truth they seek is painful punishment," she murmured to herself in her dry, cracking voice. With a swirl of her fingers, she summoned yellowed skull, polished in places where rough hands had held it repeatedly. There was a brilliant red jewel adorning it between its eyes, but it was cracked through the center by a beautiful obsidian knife. Gold spider-lines swirled around it, similar to the blades that had been provided to Sheik and Vaati by the desert Keaton.

With a tilt of her head, she ran a finger along the blade that pierced the skull through its jewel and through the bone.

"Isn't that right, Kotake?"


	10. Fork in the Road

_I… understand the fake Sheikah well. To wait and watch, wondering if there is anything that could be done. To do nothing but observe while the world is reduced to dust. To sand._

_Paralysis from knowing that there is nothing you can do against powers greater than you._

_Paralysis from knowing that I will not be heard. I am a god, but I am not powerful, and I care too much about lives that are but brief flames. My purpose is to record the world's history - nothing more. I'd resigned myself to this assignment even after my earlier... breakdown. But the Arbiter -_

_I finally learned what it is they plan to do with my pages, and I am unsure how I feel about it. I had heard nothing from them for one planetary cycle after disappearing with a copy of one of my books, and then they had returned with an inspired glow in their aurulent eyes. They informed me that they had read the book._

_No god had ever taken the time to read my records, and while I was initially overjoyed that my words finally had an audience, the joy was short-lived, for I realized that my words had_ _**changed** _ _them. I saw a curiosity the likes of which I'd never seen in the calculating, almost cruel mask the Arbiter used to wear._

_I had gotten the Arbiter of the Wastes, the Shepherd of the Sands,_

_Thuban_

_to care about the affairs of mortals._

_From what I understand, only a rare few ever make it to the end of the Arbiter's trials. They are supposed to be difficult, if not impossible, and the outcome is almost always that the wanderers fall to void. However… Thuban wants my words to alter the course of some souls. Or rather, a certain pair of souls. It's still unlikely that my pages will do anything, that they'll save them, but there's a chance._

_A small chance…_

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The two never exchanged many words during their trek across the desert. In Vaati's case, he didn't find it necessary to take part in small talk, and he already knew that any questions directed at prying into Sheik's past was useless as neither remembered anything that had happened to them before waking in this wasteland. He assumed that the same was true for Sheik, and this mutual understanding that they had nothing to talk about developed a silence between them during their journey that, while enduring, was not at all awkward.

 _Now,_ however, Vaati found the silence awkward.

He glanced at Sheik who was leading the way deeper into the ruins of the Palace of Winds, his back straight and confident unlike Vaati's own. He was still surprised that Sheik had known all along about the black knife, and still had the audacity to believe that they were both…

Vaati blinked, remembering what, exactly, Sheik had said in the morning.

_No matter what happens, I swear to you, you're going to get out of this desert alive._

Not a promise that they were both going to make it. Just Vaati. Just him. All while knowing that he'd been thinking about killing him.

A cynical voice in his head posed the question, _Well, perhaps he was lying to lower your guard, to make you doubt yourself a little?_ However, this question was quickly snuffed, for he knew without a doubt that Sheik had not been lying. Not even the best actor could recreate the passion, the conviction, behind those unflinching words.

The chains between their ankles that rattled across the sand drifted halls of the palace grated at his nerves. Vaati glowered at Sheik from time to time, wishing that the other would say something to break the silence between them, to fill the quiet air with something other than the rhythmic clanking of metal against marble. However, Sheik remained as quiet as ever, turning his head only to contemplate the hauntingly beautiful surroundings. It was only when Sheik finally made some inane comment about the architecture that Vaati decided to say something.

" _Hey_ ," he said, perhaps more sharply than he'd intended.

Sheik looked slowly over his shoulder, but though he slowed down enough to allow Vaati to walk next to him, rather than behind him, he turned his head back away. It was obvious from the lack of surprise that he already knew what it was that his companion wanted to talk about.

Catching up, Vaati kept his eyes pointedly on the other's face, and he went straight to the point, "You knew about the dagger."

Without any hesitation, Sheik replied, "I suspected it."

"You have one _too_."

"And I'm not using it. You heard what I said." Sheik continued to walk onward, not acknowledging Vaati's burning gaze. "That's not what you really wanted to say, is it? Having heard Thuban's deal yourself, I know it would have crossed your mind already that I was offered the same. The fact that I have the black dagger shouldn't be a surprise to you." He spoke sternly, but not unkindly. "So, what is it you really want to say to me?"

Color flushed to Vaati's cheeks, embarrassed at having been read so easily. He whipped his head away, absentmindedly tugging at the scarf around his neck. With a grumbled sigh, he eventually muttered, "You knew all that and yet -"

"And you heard what I said," Sheik repeated.

With gritted teeth, Vaati fell quiet again, somewhat at a loss on how to verbalize his frustrations. He didn't even know why Sheik's calm acceptance bothered him so much, just like back when Sheik had insisted he take the provisions so the two wouldn't have to fight for it. He didn't know why he cared that Sheik didn't fight back just so he could uphold some kind of idiotic concept of… honor? Was that it? Should he just stab him right here, right now, because Sheik seemed okay with that outcome? That's what he should do, right? He wasn't _wrong_ , right?

"Just so we're perfectly clear," Vaati eventually huffed, "I might actually kill you."

"I understand that."

"… Good."

At this, a small, amused smile appeared on Sheik's face. "You _might_ kill me, like you say," he chuckled to himself, "You never said you _will_."

"You place too much importance on trivial details," Vaati growled exasperatedly.

"Then _will_ you kill me?"

Vaati said nothing, instead letting his faded hood fall further over his face to hide his frustrated scowl. His silence was all Sheik needed to prove a point.

"You said before that you think we were enemies once. Maybe that's true," Sheik said, smiling behind the scarf around his neck. "But that doesn't mean we're enemies now. Or that we have to be when all of this is over. You know what I think?"

Vaati's eyes narrowed, but still he said nothing. He didn't have his usual biting remarks or tired eye-rolls.

"You're not a bad person, Vaati. A little difficult sometimes, but I'm glad for your company."

His nose was wrinkled into a silent snarl, anger at something he could not define. He didn't _dare_ say that he'd been touched by his words, no, and the moment such a thought passed he drowned it down in the familiar comfort of anger. But not even anger could help, for it soon became directed towards himself and his own perceived weakness, because he finally recognized what it was that made Sheik so… _so frustrating_.

Sheik was stronger than he was, but not in the sense that he was physically stronger. Sheik had an unwavering strength of character, an ability to uphold what he believed in without a single moment of doubt. Sheik believed in something so strongly that he didn't hesitate or question his own actions. On the other hand -

He, Vaati, didn't have anything he believed in. No concept that guided his actions. Self-preservation? Survival? If he was so sure of those ideas, then why did it take just one stupid blonde to make him pause on drawing his blade?

Sheik was stronger than he was. And the envy he felt from this realization embittered him.

"I don't understand you," Vaati muttered under his breath.

They made their way deeper into the palace. This section, unlike where they'd walked before meeting the woman at the altar, stood erect almost untouched by the sand. Some of the gold grains blew across the white marble floor, but the further in they pressed, the more it seemed like the wind itself prevented the desert from touching it. Before long, they were walking in an arched corridor with grandeur enough to trick them into thinking that the Palace had never fallen. Not a single pillar was cracked, and the stone was polished with a pearly gleam that cast the moonlight seeping through the windows with a soft white glow.

This was the first time they'd decided to follow the compass at night, for this was the first time that the compass etched into their hand directed them along inside a massive ruin such as the Palace of Winds. There was something about this night, too, that Vaati suspected was unnatural (or, just more unnatural than it usually was). Just as night had suddenly fallen as soon as they had reached the woman at the altar (much earlier than reasonable, given that the sun had seemingly set from noon in under three hours), the night seemed to grow darker the farther in they walked. Or, no, 'dark' wasn't a good word for it. It was more like everything became more… _black_. Like walking into a void. It wasn't that things became more difficult to see, it was just that things seemed to lose definition. Lose color.

It was unsettlingly quiet the further they walked into the Palace, and it took a moment for Vaati to realize that this was the first time they could no longer hear Ammit slithering in the sands outside. Vaati never imagined that he would miss the sound of the snake, until he found himself walking along an eerie corridor with an emptiness so pervasive that it was almost stifling, giving the illusion that it was difficult to breathe.

An emptiness. A void. The void. _The Void_.

The void that lasted for an incomprehensible length of time. Nothing to see. To do. To hear. To touch.

Alone with his thoughts. They were fine, at first. An hour. A day. A week. A month.

But thoughts grow old. Grow stale. They break. A year. A decade. A century. A millennium.

The void is timeless. Stifling. Choking.

Focus. Just _give me something to FOCUS_.

 _Sheik_.

Vaati blinked, breaking out of his thoughts as his eyes focused on the one thing that was not part of the creeping void. He kept his focus on Sheik for several minutes, watching the wrinkles of his rough tunic, the calloused fingers, and the sun touched strands. Then, he shook his head and unclenched his whitening knuckles to instead cradle his rattled head with one hand. He pushed back on the faint word, _Wrath_ , that had howled at him in answer to find something to focus.

Something…

He noticed something, then. He turned his head when he realized that it wasn't just Sheik who was outside of the darkness. His eyes caught an object that protruded from the smooth walls of the corridor (though, he was no longer sure if this was still part of the Palace of Winds). It was a statue. A stone statue. Vaati stared at it, grateful to find something with contour, _something_ that reminded him that this wasn't _the_ void.

The statue was that of a robed figure, wearing the same fox mask like the woman they had met at the altar. And then there was another, and then another. By the fifth one, Vaati was no longer shaken by his brief episode of panic (which he hoped had gone unnoticed by Sheik), and instead was intrigued and somewhat disturbed by the nature of these statues. At first there was only one or two of them spaced out every few feet, but eventually they increased in number until statues lined the walls completely. No two statues were the same and each one stood with its own personality, a tilt of a head there or a clasped hand here, and Vaati couldn't shake the feeling that they represented real people who'd been here before.

Or worse, that they had actually been people, once.

"Look there."

Vaati looked up from where he'd been studying the Keaton-mask statues towards a light source straight ahead. It was a small pocket of color in an otherwise black corridor lined wall to wall with statues. A small candle flickered its flame at what appeared to be a fork in the path in front of a statue of a three-tailed fox: a Keaton in its monster form. The wax had barely dripped, suggesting that the candle had been lit not too long ago, and beside it was another torn page from the Grand Scribe's book. The two exchanged glances with each other, and then they cautiously approached the candle and the page, half-expecting the fox statue to come to life and bite them.

There was a sigh of relief when the statue didn't spring to life even as Sheik picked the page from between its paws. They huddled around the light as they read the ink that spread onto the page when it was placed between the Scribe's book:

_The Palace of Winds once floated in the heavens. Mortals built it to approach the gods, a mortal claimed it to call themselves one. The false god was consumed by Wrath and rained lightning from the skies, burning the world to ashes. Now the Palace has fallen, and with it fell the false god, struck down from the skies._

Upon reading the passage, Vaati glanced back over his shoulder from where they'd walked. He didn't know why, but something about the rise and fall of this false god made him feel… disappointed? Was that the right word? It was a heavy feeling, like a twist in his gut. The rustle of paper from Sheik turning the page over made him turn back to read the text that the Scribe had left to guide them:

_Let not darkness take you when the roads diverge. Know your own truth, have faith in what you know._

"Well, diverging roads is pretty obvious here, isn't it," Sheik said, nodding his head towards the fork in the path. "The rest of it is rather vague and not very helpful yet."

Without warning, there was a flash of light as the Keaton statue's eyes glowed gold, and the two shouted and scrambled back in surprise. However, nothing happened beyond that, and when they were absolutely sure that nothing was going to attack them, Vaati stormed over and stomped his foot against the statue angrily, cursing something obscene for having startled him.

To their surprise, as soon as Vaati did so, the chain around his ankle gave a brief flicker of golden runes before it disintegrated into sand. Sheik's, too, also disappeared in the same manner.

"Er…"

Vaati stared awkwardly at the spot around his ankle where there had once been a chain. He'd gotten so used to it being there, forcing him to stick with Sheik, that it felt a little weird now that it was gone. He _wanted_ to say that he felt like he'd been freed, but right now he felt like how a rat might feel if they were released from a trap only to be placed into a snake pen. There had to be a reason for why the chain had broken, and he quickly found the answer in the compass on their hand. "Damn it," he hissed.

From Sheik's expression, he could tell that he, too, wasn't thrilled about what had just happened.

The compass etched on Sheik's hand pointed at the path to the right.

The compass on Vaati's pointed to the left.

"So, now what?" Vaati demanded. It wasn't like he couldn't do this on his own. No, he was perfectly fine doing this on his own. He was fine being alone. It wasn't like he needed Sheik, he was just with him because he'd had no choice. It wasn't like the void disturbed him… it wasn't like the void…

There was a sudden rustle of paper and a small exclamation from Sheik as the book in his hands seemed to jump to life, its pages flipping one after the other, front to back. And then, just as suddenly, it stopped open on a blank page, and words began to write itself on the paper.

"The parting is temporary, you will see each other again," Sheik read aloud, his voice surprised as he tried to make sense of everything that had happened in the last few minutes. He turned towards Vaati, who had an equally surprised look on his face, and then he turned back to the page. "That's new," he said quietly.

Vaati nodded in silent agreement. It was almost like the book was responding to them, this time, to answer their uncertainty directly. The deep lines in the paper almost made it seem like the message was much more personal than anything else they'd written before. "Wonder if the Scribe's here," he said. He moved closer to where Sheik was squatting with the book and looked over his shoulder. The writing was flowing rapidly across the pages now, like whoever was writing it was writing it in a hurry, like they were worried about getting caught doing something they weren't supposed to be doing.

With each passing curl of the ink, the handwriting became more scrawled and erratic, until the last few sentences were running off the lines and slanting down the page in messy scribbles:

_The scorpion hunts. Take to the sands if it strikes. Run where the compass points. You're almost there. You're so close to your goals, you're almost there! Have Faith._

_I believe in you. You'll make it. I believe in you. I believe-_

There was a loud rip as the book's pages were torn out of its spine, claw marks digging deeply into the paper. The ripped pages flew into the air as they were torn, and Vaati caught one last sight of the one inked with the message before it was whisked away by some invisible force. A small smirk played on his lips when he realized that the creature who'd left the claw marks had most likely been Thuban.

"Some gods are having a disagreement, perhaps," Sheik echoed his thoughts with a smirk of his own.

For the first time that day, Vaati laughed with genuine amusement, and the weight along Sheik's brows had also lifted. They had no idea what the message even meant (and, to be honest, the part about the scorpion was ominous at best), but the idea that there was someone else out there who was rooting for them emboldened them.

Sheik stood up and dusted himself off. Then, he held out the damaged book and offered it to Vaati. "Here. Take it." When he was returned with a quizzical gaze, Sheik explained, "This book will help us, but only one of us can take it if we have to split up."

"And we're absolutely _sure_ we have to split up, yes?" Vaati asked. He bit his cheek when he quickly realized how anxious that sounded. Thankfully, Sheik pretended not to notice.

"I'm afraid of what might happen if we don't follow the compass," he said. Then, he continued, "I told you I'm getting you out of this place, and I'm determined to keep my word. Take the book."

Slowly, Vaati took the red-bound book from Sheik's hands, his brows furrowed from thought. He seemed to struggle with words for a few seconds, not entirely sure how to respond. Finally, he jammed the damaged book into his bag with one hand and stuck out his other forcefully.

"I'll be seeing you later," he snapped.

Sheik's smile fell for a moment in surprise, before he beamed again. He tried hard not to laugh, since he knew it would only offend his companion, but he found it funny and almost endearing that the normally standoffish Vaati was attempting to be… friendly, almost. He clasped the offered hand in a firm handshake. "Don't die."

A nod. A pause. They didn't let go immediately, like they were wondering if there was nothing more to say before they each went their separate ways. But then, finally, they pulled back, and without another word they split off into the forked path, into a deeper void.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At first, Sheik could hear the echoed footsteps of Vaati in the next hall over until eventually the sound became more distant and he could hear them no longer. The statues, too, had eventually vanished, and he was alone, completely alone in the blackened, windowless corridor.

The empty spot around his ankles where the chains had been felt cold, and he found himself missing his loud, brash travelling companion. He wondered if he was doing okay, for he'd noticed before how nervous Vaati had been by the darkness. At least he'd sent him with the Grand Scribe's book, and the Scribe's final message suggested that they wanted to help them. Maybe they'll be able to keep Vaati from harm's way.

His eyes straining through the void and his ears keen to pick up on any unnatural sound, Sheik made his way carefully but swiftly in the direction the compass pointed. He repeated the Scribe's words over and over in his head, careful not to forget it verbatim for he didn't know when they would come in use.

_Let not darkness take you when the roads diverge. Know your own truth, have faith in what you know._

What was it that he knew? He knew very little, except perhaps his name. He also wasn't sure how to interpret the first advice, and he was wary for something jumping out at him from the darkness soon.

_The scorpion hunts. Take to the sands if it strikes. Run where the compass points._

He hadn't seen any kind of scorpion yet, but at the very least he knew that something bad was after them. He didn't know about the second instructions, but he damned knew how to run if it told him to run.

_You're almost there. You're so close to your goals, you're almost there! Have Faith._

_I believe in you. You'll make it. I believe in you._

The Scribe's words of encouragement filled him with renewed hope. Their words sounded much more invested, much more different than what they had written to them earlier that Sheik couldn't help but wonder if someone else had been writing them messages before, or if they'd been forced to write in a specific manner until now. Whatever the case, they had a real ally now. At least, that's what Sheik wanted to believe.

He saw something up ahead, then, a soft glow of light that brought focus to the object in the void. As he approached, he realized that the object wasn't an object, but-

_A person?_

The light which had illuminated the individual's silhouette vanished, but Sheik could see every detail of them clearly for they were heavily contrasted from the black of the void. It was almost like he had his eyes closed, and was imagining this individual from a dream.

Except, he was sure he wasn't dreaming. He wasn't asleep; he was awake.

Sheik's breath caught in his throat, and he slowed to a stop, unable to continue forward. This, this was impossible, wasn't it? How could this be possible unless it were a dream?

"Oh, but it isn't a dream, you see," the person answered his thoughts with a low, sinister laugh. They were lounging in midair in an invisible chair, a wide sneer on their face as they lazily rested their chin on one hand.

A rich royal purple cape was pinned around their neck by a gold brooch, and it draped over their shoulders, cascading on to the floor. It hid a light lavender tunic in what Sheik could see was crafted with high quality cloth, buckled with an equally impressive belt that was extravagantly gold. None of this, however, compared with the long trailing cap atop their head, which was adorned by a large red gem the size of a medium fruit and glowed with a malevolent light that matched the person's crimson eyes.

Eyes, which he'd seen before, not too long ago.

A face which he recognized in features only, but an expression that was much, much more hateful. _Wrathful._

They smiled like they wanted to tear him apart, limb from limb, and enjoy his screams as they did so.

"Vaati," Sheik whispered. No, this… this wasn't him. It couldn't be.

Could it?

"Tch. How dare you address me so casually, worm. I am the _Wind Mage Vaati_. Sorcerer of Winds, or Lord Vaati would also suffice," Vaati huffed. He floated down, his sandaled feet touching lightly onto the ground. He whipped his cape away from his shoulder, and an unbalanced smile stretched across his face.

"It appears I didn't do a good job getting rid of you the first time, since you've returned to my Palace like some abhorrent _pest_. Hmph! I do dislike seeing my failures show up before my feet again, but at least I can correct them this way. I can't always be perfect, hmmm," Vaati hummed, tapping a thin, pale finger against his chin. "Don't worry. Since you were so good to come to me like this, I will let you dance a while before I get rid of you for good. Consider it a _mercy_ that I allow you to beg for your life longer than I normally would have."

Sheik took a step away while Vaa-, _Wind Mage Vaati_ , threw his head back and laughed. _What in Farore's name was going on?_ he wondered. His fingers wandered towards his bag with the only weapon he had, though he hesitated when he thought back on his vow not to take another innocent life.

Vaati was… he was innocent, right?

But what did this Mage Vaati mean, when he spoke of meeting the 'first time?' They'd met before… they'd fought…

_Sheik, I think we were enemies once._

Vaati, the other Vaati's words echoed in his head while he stared at this new monster. And then he remembered back at the well, when his companion had suddenly gained unexplainable power before defeating the Phantom Shadow Beast. Was this person before him who Vaati really was?

"Sheik, was it?"

Hearing his name from this monster's lips sent chills down his spine.

"Allow me to show you what happens when you defy a _god_."


	11. The False God and the False Sheikah

_By the time the false Sheikah decides to fight once again, it is much too late for the world to be saved. However, this is no longer about saving the world. This is about retribution: To drag down the false god down from the sky, to rip their wings away from them and send them back to the earth._

_And the false Sheikah down with them._

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It wasn't until after the first attack that it really, truly occurred to Sheik that he hadn't fallen asleep at some point and that this wasn't a dream. He could have easily dodged the attack, but the part of him that was confused and still questioning if any of this was real paralyzed his movement, and he took the full force of Vaati's attack. A scorching red beam shot from the sorcerer's hands and burned his left arm at the elbows, and he shouted in agony as the energy crackled down to the bone and incinerated his nerves. His arm hung limply against his side, and pain shot up from his elbows to his fingers with any attempt at movement.

He managed to dodge the next attack, aimed at his other arm, and just barely rolled out of the way from a sharp burst of air, the pressure refined until it made something like a wind blade. He watched the blade collide with the black wall of the corridor, and a bead of sweat rolled down his nose when he saw how effortlessly it cut into the stone with a sickening crack like a knife through water.

He couldn't die here, not when he had no idea what was going on.

He dodged another attack again, and then another, and then another. After a few more times, he looked up and saw Vaati sneering at him from behind his long bangs, and Sheik realized that the wind mage was toying with him, 'making him dance,' as he'd claimed he would do earlier. Despair clenched his throat when he realized that the sorcerer could easily end his life with a single wave of his arm if he wished it: he was only alive because the sorcerer _willed it_.

"Tell me, are you too frightened to fight back?" Vaati laughed when he saw Sheik's expression. "I'd assumed that, since you'd come all this way to see me, that you would at least put up some resistance!"

Sheik crouched, getting ready to avoid whatever Vaati might throw at him next. Still, he knew that he couldn't avoid the attacks forever, and eventually the sorcerer was going to get bored of flinging lazy shots that he intended for Sheik to avoid. With his undamaged right hand, Sheik reached into his bag and drew the black dagger that Thuban had provided him.

He didn't want to do this. He wasn't sure if the Vaati he was facing was the Vaati that he knew, or if this was some kind of illusion the strange desert had cast on his mind.

_But it's far too real for it to be an illusion, isn't it?_

Would he kill? Could he kill? It was almost like Thuban was tempting him to kill Vaati by having him encounter this evil with his likeness. The fox had taunted him before, speaking to him like they knew there would come a time when he would draw the black blade. For that reason alone he didn't want to fight, stubborn as he was not to give the Keaton the satisfaction of having been right.

Even so, questions ran rampant in his mind. He easily rolled out of the way of a projectile that was exactly the same magical attack as the one he'd seen Vaati use back at the well against the invisible monster. He was certain that this creature of wrath was not the Vaati he knew, _not_ the Vaati he traveled with, but at the same time…

He deflected another attack with the dagger in his hand, and he felt the power behind it ripple through his arm. The sorcerer appeared pleased upon seeing Sheik finally armed, and he taunted again.

"I was almost impressed the first time we fought, Sheikah. You had no hope of winning in the first place, but you almost forced me to _try_. But now look at you! To think I might have respected your tenacity, hah!"

Memories… they define a person, don't they? While this was definitely not the Vaati he knew, perhaps… perhaps this was a glimpse of who he'd once been? He had no idea what this sorcerer was saying; he had no knowledge of the 'Sheikah,' and had no idea what he meant when he spoke of having fought before. But if they had been enemies once, and if this was the history that connected them both -

 _Vaati would never_.

Was that true? Was he certain about that? What made him so confident that this wasn't the truth? And then a more frightening thought: if this monster was Vaati then who was _Sheik?_

His thoughts were interrupted when a gust of wind caught him from behind, knocking him up several feet into the air. For a few seconds he hung suspended, and then he was slammed back into the ground by an invisible force. Air was knocked out of his lungs and he gritted his teeth through the pain of his elbow jamming into his ribs. Still dazed, he dragged his body across the cold floor towards the dagger that had slipped from his grasp; in the background he heard a vicious snicker.

"Or did you finally recognize that you are in the presence of a god? You came to pay your respects, is that it?" Vaati jeered as he watched the blonde crawl towards the black dagger. With a grin, he swirled a finger in the air, charging a small bead of energy as Sheik slowly stumbled back onto his feet. "Then why don't you _kneel_." The bead of energy shot towards Sheik's right knee. It was too fast to dodge, and Sheik collapsed back onto the ground when his knee gave out. The blonde bit through the pain even as the smoke sizzled up from the burned flesh and cloth, his skin raw and red with boils from the burn where the attack had hit.

With effort, Sheik lifted his head from where he'd been forced to kneel. He saw the sorcerer standing over him with an expression that wasn't quite there, wasn't quite right. It was the expression of someone who was one thread away from madness before the twine snapped, the expression of someone who'd endured unspeakable injustice and survived, but came out of the experience irreversibly changed.

"V-Vaati… what happened to you?" Sheik asked through gritted teeth, wincing from the pain of his injuries. He held back a shout when a shark kick connected with the side of his head, sending him sprawling backwards.

"The trash speaks out of turn," Vaati chided, and his smile dipped into a disapproving frown. With swift strides, he followed after the body he'd kicked aside, his arms gesturing dramatically as he continued his tirade. "How does it feel to die slowly? I know the feeling quite intimately, actually, thanks to a couple of brats who called themselves _heroes_. I don't think you're dying quite _slowly enough_ to understand what I've endured."

"Then _tell me,_ " Sheik roared curling over his elbows on the floor as he attempted once again to stand up. " _Tell me what happened_."

"The _trash_ speaks out of turn," Vaati repeated, shouting back this time, and his unnatural calm breaking. He threw out a hand, extended like a gnarled claw, and powerful magic crackled from his fingertips. The attack hit Sheik full on his side, and it once again sent him flying across the corridor. "You don't know what I'm talking about, you say? You think _ignorance_ will excuse you? You think I care?" he hissed while Sheik groaned weakly from the floor several feet away.

Sheik slowly opened his eyes and found that his vision was blurred; the attack had done something to his eyesight. He could no longer focus, and the edges appeared fuzzy and vague. Squinting, he looked up from where he lay on the ground towards where the sorcerer approached him.

It was strange… the darkness seemed to be leaving the corners of his vision, somehow. The blur in his vision pushed away the blackness, bringing with it instead a fuzzy outline of something white.

White pillars, like the ones he'd seen half buried in the sand near the entrance of the Palace of Winds. The sky was overcast, and the thick, grey rainclouds weaved between the pillars. They were in the sky…

"I wonder what you hoped to accomplish by coming to me, knowing that you would die," Vaati said, walking over to Sheik who was writhing on the floor that had, at some point, turned a polished white rather than the black of the void. Rain appeared to have fallen as well, and small puddles formed on the marble floor. "It's a shame you didn't put up more of a fight."

 _Have I seen this before, Thuban?_ Sheik wondered as Vaati slowly held out a hand towards his face. Energy gathered in the sorcerer's palms, and Sheik's face was illuminated by an electric blue glow as the magic charged. _Tell me, what happened to us?_

The sphere finished charging, and Vaati threw his hand downwards in one, swift motion. Wind molded into razor sharp blades slashed down on Sheik, ripping into his tunic, ripping into his skin. The force of impact tossed him into the air, and with another hand motion Vaati froze the battered body in place. Like a mad conductor he whipped his hands, summoning a screeching vortex to swallow Sheik whole. It tore at his limbs and sliced through his body with every rotation, and this lasted for several grueling seconds before Vaati finally released the spell with a snap of his fingers.

The body fell with a wet thud onto the puddles of rain now stained red with blood. It shuddered with a heave, and then a gurgled cough as its lungs tried to breathe. Barely, just barely, Sheik was still alive. He was too weak to move, now, and he no longer made an attempt to stand up on his feet like before. Red spread from where he lay, blood running from the deep lacerations.

"You'll bleed out, soon enough," Vaati said disdainfully. He turned his heel, waving a hand without another glance at the body he left behind. "Know that the agony you feel is not even a fraction of the agony I endured for countless years. I am a merciful god to let you die like this, without a millennia of suffering."

His mouth could no longer form words. Instead, he reached out a shaking hand towards the retreating figure, his blurred vision fading as he did so. _Wait_ , he thought, _not… not like this._

_Tell me what happened to Vaati._

As though in answer, a light flickered along his reaching hand, slowly tracing the outline of an arrow that ran down to his fingertips. To his surprise, his body began to move of its own accord, like he was a spirit watching someone else, and he could no longer feel anything nor could he hear anything. From where he lay, his other hand reached forward and pulled back on an imaginary string, and then a bright flash blinded his eyes when a bow made of light materialized in his palms.

His damaged vision slowly began to clear into focus. The thick clouds parted, allowing sunlight to stream through like some divine sign.

 _Blue sleeves. Taped fingers_ , Sheik thought briefly when he noticed that his arms appeared different than before. _Same as in my dream…_

He released the arrow. It flew straight for its target, and pierced Vaati through the heart.

The sorcerer stumbled forward from the impact, before he slammed his foot down on the ground, forcing himself to remain standing. Clutching his chest where the arrow had gone through him, Vaati slowly turned around with his face frozen in disbelief. It twisted into rage. Then fear.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, neither saying a word.

And then the sorcerer fell, his legs giving way, and Sheik found his consciousness slipping with a smile on his face.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sheik woke up.

He jolted up, whipping his head around for Vaati. Immediately upon doing so, he stared down at his hands in surprise: they were no longer cut and burned. In fact, he was perfectly fine, and the injuries he thought he'd suffered from were completely gone. Even his vision was no longer blurred.

His tense expression relaxed, and he allowed himself to give a deep breath. He noticed the obsidian dagger lying a few feet away from where he was sitting, and he slowly got up on his feet to pick it up. He turned the dagger in his hands and looked at it pensively as he thought about what he'd just seen. _None of it had been real…_

He looked behind him from where he'd walked. The blackness of the corridor had disappeared, and it was no different than any of the other normal corridors of the Palace of Winds they'd walked through before. The air was lit with a soft blue-white glow of the moon, just past the halfway mark in the sky and making its way towards dawn. All of the strange statues had also vanished along with the void.

 _The false god of the Palace of Winds,_ Sheik thought as he remembered the passage from the Grand Scribe's book, _I wonder if that had been about Vaati…_

_I wonder if I've been here before._

He didn't really know what to make of the vision (had it been a vision? It had felt too real, but he wasn't sure what else it could have been. The rules of reality didn't seem to apply to this goddess forsaken place). He didn't know if he should believe it.

He didn't know if it changed his opinion about Vaati. He had a difficult time believing that his companion had been someone like the sorcerer he'd encountered, so full of hate and wrath. He looked down at the dagger in his hands again. _If Vaati had really been that monster I encountered just now, then -_

His thoughts were interrupted by a faint gasp nearby, and his head shot up towards the sound. He froze when he saw, just a few feet away from him, Vaati, the one in the same tattered canvas tunic and the one who'd accompanied him for miles across the desert, staring at him. He, too, looked like he'd just woken from another nightmare, with his hair in a disheveled mess like he'd just escaped a fight and his hands tense and shaking.

Sheik held his breath when he saw that Vaati's fingers were clenched tightly around a black dagger, which he pointed threateningly towards him in warning. The memory of the Wind Mage still fresh in his mind, Sheik's eyes narrowed and he, too, slowly held up the dagger he was holding. His eyes searched his opponent, ready to act with a single hint of movement.

But then -

His eyes landed on Vaati's other hand, clasped around the red spine of the Grand Scribe's book. The book was open, pressed against his chest like he'd kept it open at a certain page so he could refer to its wisdom quickly.

 _The Scribe…_ Sheik thought. Then, he remembered the words that the book had spoken to them before they'd split up.

_Know your own truth, have faith in what you know_

The tension leaving from the corner of his eyes, Sheik blinked, and looked once again towards his former companion who was still brandishing his dagger at him. He took a closer look, setting aside the fear that the encounter with the sorcerer had tainted him with. This Vaati, the Vaati that _he_ knew, did not glare at him with that sadistic evil, but instead mirrored his own uncertain anger borne from suspicion. Like him, Vaati didn't know what was going on, and from the way he looked at him like he was expecting him to attack, Sheik could guess exactly what Vaati had seen a few minutes ago.

The Wind Mage Vaati wasn't Vaati. _That_ 's what he knew. He'd had faith in his own words earlier, words that insisted that even if they'd been enemies before, they didn't have to be enemies now. In the short time they'd known each other, Sheik would consider him a friend. The Scribe was telling him to believe that. Visions weren't something he could believe, but he _could_ believe in what he'd experienced and remembered in this short time with his companion in the desert.

They were going to make it to the end.

They were going to wring the truth out of Thuban.

And then they were going to leave this awful place forever with their own strength.

"Vaati," he said.

The other crouched lower at the sound of his voice, and Vaati's eyes narrowed in response.

"Vaati it's… it's okay," Sheik repeated, taking a step forward.

The movement caused Vaati to raise his dagger in warning, and rage burned in his crimson eyes. "Take one more step-" he warned, but he was interrupted by a loud clatter on the floor when Sheik threw his dagger across the floor. The weapon skidded away, out of reach from the both of them, and the action prompted Vaati to look up in surprise.

"We're alive. You're alive."

Less certain now, Vaati took a small step back as Sheik walked towards him. He raised his dagger higher. "I'm warning you," he snarled, but there was a hesitation in his voice, like he couldn't make sense of what was going on. He was briefly distracted when his eyes wavered towards the dagger that Sheik had thrown aside, and by the time he'd looked back the distance between them had closed. He suddenly thrusted his dagger hand down towards Sheik, but the blonde was faster, wrapping his arms around him in a reassuring embrace.

They were alive.

They hadn't died.

They were alive and they were going to make it.

"… That wasn't you," Sheik murmured into his shoulder.

Hands frozen where he'd been about to stab Sheik, Vaati's expression was paralyzed in one of uncertainty and shock. His dagger shook and his knuckles were white where they gripped the hilt of the obsidian blade, and several times he seemed ready to swing his arm back down and bury it into Sheik's back.

Finally, there was a clatter as Vaati finally dropped his arm, the dagger slipping away from his fingers and falling onto the floor.

"What I saw back there was Wrath incarnate. I've been with you long enough to know that that's not who you are."

Vaati's brows furrowed. "Sheik…" His voice was quiet, still processing the nightmarish scene he'd just experienced with what was happening now. The rage that had moments before been reflected in his eyes had simmered into cold coals.

"We're going to get through this together. I can't do this alone, I need you with me," Sheik continued, "That wasn't you."

Vaati remained standing wordlessly, his hands hanging against his sides. Earlier, he'd encountered someone he believed to be Sheik, and they'd threatened to send him back to the Void.

It had terrified him.

He would have demanded to be let go by now, but instead he allowed himself to feel the quiet comfort of Sheik's embrace while he listened to the echo of his words in his head.

It was true.

They were alive.

And, despite the terrible wrath that had consumed him earlier, he felt something different this time; a sense of relief that they were together again, and that they didn't have to go on alone. For the first time, including what his tormented memories revealed to him, his heart felt at peace. His eyes widened at the realization that he remembered feeling something aside from anger, and he pushed against the warmth around him to pull away. He'd expected something awful to come for him as soon as he realized the anger had _gone_ ,

_(Madness held off only with anger)_

but madness never came.

His chin snapped up towards Sheik who was wondering what was wrong. "I-" he started.

And then he stopped. He saw a flicker of movement behind Sheik, and he saw a golden pair of eyes watching them from the darkness. His gaze sharply followed the faint silhouette of Thuban that seemed to blend into the night, and his eyes trailed slightly longer at the Keaton's hooked, ringed tail.

Hooked, like a scorpion's.

 _The scorpion hunts_ -

"Sheik!" Vaati shouted in warning, but it was too late. Thuban's apparition vanished as sand, but in its place leapt out a gigantic black scorpion the size of a full-grown man. Its pincers lunged forward, grabbing Sheik and dragging him backwards. In an instant, Vaati ducked down to grab the dagger he'd dropped and dashed forward, plunging it into the creature's head. With a shriek, it flailed backwards, but not before it gave one last strike with its tail, the barb burying into Sheik's leg, flooding poison into it.

" _No!_ " Vaati took a few steps to chase after the retreating monster, but then realized that his companion was in dire trouble. Sheik was on the ground, clutching his leg with his face pulled back in a pained grimace. His leg was growing a darker shade of purple by the second and the blood that dripped from the two-inch wide wound was a hideous black.

More worrisome, however, was the glowing mark that had appeared where his compass had once been. Rather than the compass, numbers glowed on Sheik's hand. The numbers continued to count down, from 5959, to 5958, to 5957.

A timer. And Vaati could guess exactly what it meant.

Sheik had one hour to live.


	12. Devouring Serpent Ammit

_Thuban is a God of the Dead._

_One would think that a god with such a title must be unbiased to be able to judge the worth of souls, to allow them another chance at life or dispose them into the void._

_I believe Thuban took this to heart and judged detached and uncaring, that is, until I had shown them my book of records. If there is anything I learned after following the lives of mortals, it is that one who deals so closely with their fate_ _**cannot** _ _be unbiased: they must care about them. Love them. I love them. No doubt Thuban must have sensed it through my words, as well._

_I do not believe Thuban understands compassion, yet, as many of the gods have long since forgotten such a concept in their entitlement and arrogance, but they've become… curious._

_Judgment is nuanced. Not all souls are equal._

_For instance, those chosen by the Three pass on and are reincarnated for the next cycle. This is an absolute, and Fate makes this so. It is not up to lesser gods to judge these three special individuals. Other souls, however, are judged based on their actions in life: while those who followed a truly pure path are granted an immediate audience with Ausar, who will allow them to reincarnate, most must prove that they are souls who are deserving of another chance._

_Several gods oversee these souls requiring a trial, and Thuban handles what one might call… the most hopeless, terrible cases._

_I do not like these trials myself: they simplify these souls and force them into a crude binary of deserving and undeserving. I have seen enough lives and followed enough stories to know that mortals are not so straightforward to be able to be marked with such limited labels. Even the ones that are taken to Thuban's domain, the ones that are quickly labeled as inherently 'Evil', are complex in their motivations and histories._

_I see the Arbiter, and I see them thinking, scheming something devious. Rule breaking. They've begun to_ _**care** _ _and I see them wanting to test assumptions, ones that, for instance, assume that those automatically labeled 'pure' without trial would pass them. "Perhaps they_ _**never would** _ _, because these trials aren't exactly fair, are they?" I can imagine them thinking_

_I see them questioning the beliefs that assume that the most 'evil' of souls cannot be saved. "Perhaps they_ _**can** _ _be," I can almost hear them asking me._

_I... cannot stop the Arbiter. I know they're about to set in motion something rash, and they will be punished severely for it once the others find out. At the same time -_

_I, too, would like to see how this all plays out. The gods have been too removed from the reality of the subjects they preside over, and perhaps this will 'wake them up,' as the mortals might say._

_Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_One hour. One hour?_

The faintly glowing numbers etched into the back of Sheik's hand where his compass had been blinked back, and Vaati stared at it, a part of him knowing what it meant and the other part unable to make sense of it. _5956, 5955, 5954…_

"I can't feel my leg…"

Sheik's voice snapped him out of his daze, and Vaati shook his head, trying to focus. He had to do something. Something. Sheik was down on the ground with a big gaping wound, and the scorpion, though injured, was still lurking about in the dark somewhere. He forced his body to get up and help Sheik with his injury, but his mind was still reeling with shock at what had happened in the past hour. His mind a muddled mess of confusion, Vaati moved stiffly, though swiftly as though action would eventually help him gather his thoughts. With the black blade in his hands, he swiftly cut the fabric of his own pants below the knees, and he took the torn fabric to see what he could do about treating the injury. Upon pulling up Sheik's pant leg and seeing the full damage, however, he swore under his breath.

"I'm willing to lose my leg if that's what it'll take," Sheik said upon seeing Vaati's expression.

Vaati's fists clenched around the ripped fabric he was holding. Then, he exhaled, and dabbed away some of the blood around the injury that had turned a thick black. "It's too late for that," he said eventually, and ripped another piece of fabric, this time from his other pant leg, to wrap around the wound. The purple stain that extended from the wound had spread quickly, painting Sheik's leg into a strange kaleidoscope of blackish purple. It had spread too far to even consider sacrificing a leg to save him.

There was also clearly some kind of magical property to it as well, for it faded from black to gold, and it swirled into something that looked almost like a pattern. Upon finishing wrapping Sheik's ankle, Vaati looked up, his eyes widening when he saw that the marks had begun to appear up on Sheik's arms as well as up along his neck and further still.

"Your face it's-" Vaati began, surprised. He leaned in closer to inspect the marks, and then his expression became stern when he picked up something distinct about them. "Hold still," he said, and he reached his hand towards Sheik who was patiently waiting for an explanation on what his companion was seeing. The blonde was surprisingly calm about the situation, though Vaati had a suspicion that a good part of it was an act from the way his lips pressed together into thin lines from time to time, like he was holding himself back from showing any kind of fear.

He'd learned that Sheik knew how to bluff through anxiety _very_ well. He'd hadn't really realized this until the vision -

_Blue eyes. Red eyes. No matter how many times he struck them down they kept coming back._

_They spoke to him, but all he could hear were threats that they would send him back, back to that nightmarish void. Battered, beaten, they should have been dead! And yet, bleeding, dying, they stared back at him with inhuman composure, steadfast in their determination to ensnare him._

_He remembered thinking he'd finished them, and then feeling something pierce through his heart, a feeling that could only be described as having his soul ripped out of his body._

_Rage._

_Blue eyes. Red eyes. The scene changed and they were standing in front of him once again. Again they seemed to stand with calmness and poise even as they tossed their dagger away._

_Except this time…_

_There was a shake to their step, a subtle twitch of their eye, a brief clenching of their fingers. They were calm, but they were nervous._

_And then he knew. They were human._

_They'd always been afraid; they were just very good at hiding it._

"Vaati?" Sheik asked.

Vaati blinked, not realizing how he'd been distracted by his own thoughts, and he shook his head vehemently to clear his head. He couldn't allow the visions to distract him like this now, not when Sheik was quickly running out of time. He still had many burning questions about what it all meant, but analyzing his opinion about his companion was not his priority. His gut told him that he needed to save Sheik first - passing judgment could come later.

Vaati ran his fingers down Sheik's face, tracing the gold symbols that had appeared along his neck and up to his cheekbones. "Words. There are words on your face now," he said.

"Do they look good on me?" Sheik made a weak joke, trying to make the best of the situation. It earned him an unamused eyeroll, but there was a hint of a tired smile somewhere on Vaati's face before he went back to concentrate on what the words said.

"What the… it's just the same words that were written in the Scribe's book," Vaati exclaimed in disappointment after a while. However, he felt Sheik shaking his arm to catch his attention.

Sheik had rolled back his sleeves, and was pointing at the letters that were running down the length of his arm. "Here. This is new."

Immediately Vaati pulled Sheik's arm closer to get a better look. Indeed the script appeared to be new. "The Arbiter waits," he read aloud, "Take to the sands and follow the path. At the End you will be saved."

The two of them stared at the words in silence for several seconds, turning over in their heads what it might mean. The words matched what the Scribe had warned them earlier, words that hadn't made sense to them at the time: _Take to the sands if the scorpion strikes_.

Vaati looked up, gazing down the corridor of the Palace of Winds. Now that the void had gone, he could see that they were near the edge of the Palace, and the corridor led straight out into the desert once again. The sand was still illuminated white from the moon that was making its way across the sky, and though its angle suggested that night was almost over, they couldn't afford to wait for dawn, for Sheik's time was running short.

He had less than one hour to get Sheik through the desert to save him.

His decision made, Vaati released his grip on Sheik's arm and stood up abruptly. He left his own dagger with Sheik, and went to retrieve the one that Sheik had tossed aside earlier.

"Vaati, we can't travel at night," Sheik called, knowing the conclusion that Vaati had come to. With a bit of a struggle, he twisted around from where he sat to see where Vaati had gone.

"We have to," Vaati answered gruffly.

"That serpent is out there."

Ignoring Sheik's comments, Vaati roughly offered out his hand upon returning to Sheik. "Can you walk? Get up," he said, his impatience suggesting that he was tired of hearing Sheik's protests. Suddenly, he felt something cold and smooth being pressed against his palms, instead of the warm calloused hands he'd been expecting. He looked down sharply to see Sheik handing him Thuban's obsidian dagger. "What are you doing?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

" _Take it_ ," Sheik insisted, pushing the dagger away from him and into Vaati's hands. "We both know that we can't make it in one hour, and definitely not while Ammit is out there" he explained when Vaati continued to look at him in silence with his brows knitted together. Sheik paused, his voice becoming heavy from the sudden fatigue that washed over him and clutched at his throat. He turned away, both to steady himself from the sudden effects of the poison but also because he couldn't meet Vaati's gaze as he said his next words. He didn't like what he was suggesting himself, but he could see no other course of action that made more sense than this one. If he was to die then he would rather his death have some meaning. "I want you to take Thuban's deal."

The clock ticked three seconds while Vaati made no reaction except for a brief flash of irritation that appeared on his face, and then he replied with a single, leaden, "No." He pushed back against the dagger, a twitch of his nose warning Sheik to put the weapon out of sight without further objections. Sheik, however, did not back down.

"At least one of us will make it then," he pressed. He tried to raise his voice but his lungs had grown weak. Still, he continued, pushing his weakening voice to make himself heard. "I'd prepared for this possibility from the start I -"

" _Get up_ ," Vaati interrupted him sharply. He slapped Sheik's hand away, instead reaching forward and roughly grabbing him by his other wrist to drag him forcefully up on his feet. Sheik, however, resisted, wrenching free from Vaati's grip. The blond bit his lip through a wince brought on by a sharp spike of pain from the wound he'd momentarily forgotten in his argument with Vaati, but he adamantly stood his ground.

" _That serpent will kill you!_ " he exclaimed, ignoring how awful his voice was starting to sound. And he knew it, he'd always known it as soon as they'd first learned of the monstrous serpent, that if either of them set foot on the sands at night then they were going to die. He didn't understand anything about their pasts, but he could put enough pieces together to know that they both had blood on their hands. The Scribe had warned sinners to fear Ammit, and he knew, he _knew_ that they would not be among those spared. Before he could get another word in, he felt himself yanked forward by his collar and suddenly found himself inches away from Vaati's infuriated face.

"You have the _nerve_ to say that, after you've made me listen day after day how we're going to get through this _together?_ You have the _nerve_ to say that after your little speech just now about how we're going to _make it?"_ Vaati hissed, his lips pulled back into a snarl. "You _aggravate me_."

Vaati released his hold with a small shove, and Sheik fell back on his elbows not so much from the force of it, but from surprise at his companion's reaction. Vaati straightened up again, and absentmindedly brushed away the wrinkles from his clothes while avoiding meeting his gaze with Sheik who was still looking at him, flabbergasted. Vaati sighed, and he picked up the dagger that had dropped out of Sheik's hand, and then wordlessly knelt down beside him to place it in the bag hanging over the blonde's shoulder. His annoyed scowl remained on his face even as he slowly pulled the string that scrunched the bag closed. Next to him, the glowing timer on Sheik's hand now read 5500. Five minutes had already passed, but Sheik didn't rush him, nor did he hurry Sheik himself.

Sheik knew that he wasn't going to make it, even with five extra minutes. Din, Vaati knew it, too, but he wasn't going to admit that. To be honest, he hadn't been one hundred percent sure that he would try to help Sheik earlier, but after the fool had insisted that he take Thuban's deal…

Well, he couldn't let him take all of the cool lines, could he?

"… You helped me remember something," Vaati said quietly after a while. A part of him didn't know why he was even talking about this, since he didn't owe Sheik any sort of explanation on why he'd changed his mind about taking Thuban's deal. He sighed again, fiddling with the edges of his now frayed pants that he'd ripped just above the knee. He finally turned his head to glance at Sheik who was waiting for him patiently.

 _This would have been simpler if it had stayed forgotten, hmm?,_ he thought, his gaze falling on his foolishly hopeful companion whose confused expression was illuminated by the gold letters that were etched along his neck and up to his temples. His earlier scowl disappeared to be replaced with a small, tired smile. "I remembered something other than anger," he explained.

Then, without elaborating any further, his expression hardened and he said, "I'm not letting you give up - you're going to fight. Besides," he added with a smirk, and he stood up, holding out his hand to Sheik once again, "whatever happened to your faith?"

Sheik stared at the offered hand in surprise, not entirely understanding Vaati's change in attitude. However, he finally took the hand and pulled himself up onto his feet gingerly, taking care not to place too much weight on his injured leg. A frown lingered on his face, not liking the idea of placing Vaati in what he thought was pointless danger, but then he couldn't help but allow himself a small, defeated yet grateful smile. Vaati was right, of course. After all his preaching of having faith, faith until the end that things would be okay, it would be wrong if he simply gave up hope for _himself_ now. "… All right," he murmured.

"Now get up. We wasted enough time."

"Sorry, my leg." Sheik stumbled when his knee buckled under his weight. Vaati swiftly caught him, hauling most of his weight over his shoulders. Then, with one more look at his own compass pointing towards the empty sands where the serpent lay waiting, he slowly made his way towards their next and perhaps final destination, with Sheik limping weakly beside him.

It was absurd to think that they were going to make it to their next destination like this in less than hour. Another five minutes passed simply from limping and dragging themselves towards the end of the corridor to where the palace ended and the desert began, giving them forty minutes left. The sand would be heavy on their feet as their heels and toes sunk within it with each step, and Vaati had no idea what they would even do when Ammit showed itself. He hadn't thought that far.

All he had, really, was faith in the Grand Scribe's words that they should take to the sands. The Scribe had proven time and time again that their words showed them how to best every obstacle they came across, and he'd decided he would trust that. He would trust _Sheik_ on that.

Taking Thuban's offer was no longer an option.

It would have been so much easier if he could just kill him like he said he would, wouldn't it? How hard could it be to run a dagger through someone he'd just met a few days ago, someone he barely knew, and someone he was sure had been an enemy in the past? How hard could it be?

Except…

Time meant nothing; it wasn't true that the two of them 'barely knew' each other, for they knew just as much about each other that they knew of themselves, and maybe more. Over the past few days he'd seen enough of Sheik's bothersome doggedness in doing things _right_ to know that Sheik had strong convictions about justice, which while annoying he couldn't help but admit he respected. He knew how the idiot sometimes held back his own fears and worries, thinking he could handle them himself. He knew how he did so even to the point of self-sacrifice.

The fact that they had been enemies in the past… while that was certainly something he still thought about, he also couldn't help but consider the idea that perhaps…

Were they friends?

What would it take to kill a friend? _How hard could it be?_

Impossible.

They were about three dozen steps away from the Palace of Winds when Vaati saw movement in the horizon; a trail of dust tossed up into the air from a very large creature moving through the sands. Vaati felt Sheik stiffen at the sight, and the blond turned his head hesitantly towards him as though asking if he was sure he didn't want to simply take Thuban's deal instead of face _this_. Feeling done with the conversation Sheik was pressing, Vaati gave a small pull forwards while readjusting his weight across his back, and continued to drag him towards their destination. He'd made up his mind. There was no going back.

Just two more steps forward and a mountain erupted in front of them, obstructing their path. The two boys ducked, blocking their face from the shower of sand that rained down on them from the monstrous creature arching towards the sky. Then, it leered at them, opening its mouth with a low hiss. Sand streamed from their gaping maw, cascading down along rows and rows of golden fangs.

Vaati and Sheik stood their ground as the giant serpent twisted its neck towards them, their black scales seemingly absorbing every hint of light: a void. Their row of three eyes, however, glowed the same eerie gold as Thuban's, and it studied them for a while as though trying to determine if they were worthy to continue on.

"Move out of my way," Vaati growled at the snake.

As soon as he spoke, Ammit recoiled with a sharp hiss, like it found Vaati's voice particularly repugnant. Then, with a swift strike, its neck snapped forward, threatening to swallow the two travelers whole in its jaws.

 _Hah. Well, we both knew this was how it was going to end,_ Vaati thought as darkness closed in on them.

Movement.

Just before death took them, Vaati saw something hurtling towards them from their left with surprising speed. Before he knew what was happening, he felt a powerful gust of air knock him and Sheik off of their feet, and then a withered hand grab him roughly by the collar. Within the chaos he managed to grab Sheik by the arm, making sure he wasn't left behind, and then with another bout of turbulence beneath them, the two were tossed upwards and onto -

_A broom…?_

The hand that had grabbed him by the collar released him, and he heard a familiar voice chastise them. "Hmph! I _told_ you that you wouldn't make it, but you stubborn, idiot boys wouldn't believe me."

Vaati took a moment to make sure that the increasingly weakening Sheik wasn't going to fall off by keeping the blonde's arms around his neck, and then his head snapped towards the other figure sitting atop another broom just a little bit ahead. The person was wearing a black and gold Keaton mask, and their graying hair was pulled back in a large bun atop their head. Their robes flapped behind them as the three flew away from the serpent on the two broomsticks.

"You're that woman we met," Vaati exclaimed.

Koume tutted. "I even gave you my name at your insistence and all you can say is 'that woman.' Kids these days," she added sourly, but the tone of her voice suggested a smile beneath the feigned annoyance.

"You're going to help us?"

An angry roar momentarily interrupted their conversation, and upon looking over his shoulder, Vaati saw the shadow of the colossal serpent turn and raise its neck towards them. With another hiss, a sound like wind rushing between dried grass, it dove into the dunes to pursue them.

"Thuban's trial is _rigged_. No one is supposed to make it out here," Koume laughed bitterly, "but I realized that for once, I'd like to see someone beat the Keaton at their game if it's the last thing I do. I blame your friend, lighting a foolish flame to this old woman's lost soul."

At this, Vaati could only return a tired chuckle of his own. "He does that, doesn't he…" he said, and he glanced over his shoulder at Sheik who, while conscious, was starting to appear like he was struggling to remain awake. The timer ticked at half an hour remaining.

"Now hang tight else you fall off."

Vaati felt another pull from the broomstick he was straddling, and he felt their speed increase. Just in time, too, for something exploded behind them, and he saw Ammit lunge forward into the air where they'd been moments before. With a rush of black scales, it once again disappeared into the sand, but the dust cloud kicking up from its movement suggested that the serpent wasn't too far behind.

The broom was surprisingly easy to balance on, like there was some magic attached to it that prevented them from toppling off. It also seemed to twist and turn at Koume's command, and she demanded several times for Vaati to show her where his compass was pointing so she could fly them in the right direction. There was a cracked blue jewel the size of a bird's egg attached to the broomstick just at its tip, and Vaati wondered if it was key to its magical properties (however, he discarded such a theory when he noticed that Koume's broom had no such jewel).

Ammit was relentless, but Koume maneuvered the brooms with expert precision, effortlessly dodging the serpent's reckless dives and weaving in and out of its spiked crests.

They flew over the dunes at an incredible speed, but the magical properties of the broom kept most of the wind away from their face, allowing them to observe their surroundings while they avoided Ammit's maws. From time to time, Vaati caught sight of creatures scuttling about in the night sands, breaking their prior illusion that the desert was an empty place: most of the creatures were giant scorpions, some even larger than the one they had encountered back at the Palace of Winds. Upon seeing them, he understood what Koume had meant when she'd said that Thuban's trials were rigged. In addition to the monsters patrolling their path, it was impossible for them to make it to their final destination in under an hour: the trial had been set so that they would definitely fail.

But with help, perhaps they could succeed...

Just as Vaati could feel Sheik beginning to slump against his back, right on the cusp of consciousness, he saw daylight break over the horizon, a thin white ray of light stretching across the land and dulling the stars in the sky. With the breaking light, he saw a silhouette of something that wasn't part of the horizon, and from the way his compass pointed directly at it, he guessed that it was their destination. "There!" he shouted.

Koume saw it, too, and she urged the brooms to fly faster towards it, their altitudes lowering so that they were just skimming above the dunes.

As light spread across the desert, Vaati wondered if this meant that Ammit would stop pursuing them. He didn't have to wonder for long, because a spike the size of a large tree erupted next to them, and then another, and then another. Like the fins of a fish cutting through water, the serpent's crests sliced the sand, indicating that it was still very much hunting them and had managed to close some of the distance between them. The spikes remained beside them for a few seconds, and then they disappeared once again into the depths of the dunes.

There was an eerie quiet for a few seconds, save for the rush of the wind and the sliding rustle of sand. Then, without warning, there was an earsplitting roar, and Vaati saw the colossal black serpent make one last dive towards them as they approached their destination. Out of all the attempts so far, this was the closest Ammit had managed to get to them, and there was a moment of doubt when Vaati realized that he could see every crack and every detail of the great serpent's gold fangs as it glittered in the rising sun.

There was an exclamation from ahead, and Vaati wrenched his head away from those monumental fangs to see what it was that Koume was shouting about.

And then he saw it: the silhouette waiting for them, their destination, was not a destination at all but a person. A _god_.

_Thuban._

As they approached, the Keaton slowly raised their bandaged hand. Then, a sudden force threw the three off of the brooms, sending them hurtling towards the ground at the speed they'd been travelling. Before they crashed into the sand, however, an invisible force cushioned their fall and absorbed most of the impact, and then they tumbled slowly forward for a few feet before finally coming to a stop exactly next to the floating black fox.

Upon seeing Thuban, Ammit instantly froze, the sand on its back sliding off of its black scales from the abrupt stop. Their fangs hovered just above the three mortals and lone god like a dog that had been scolded for trying to take food off the dining table.

"Stand down, Ammit. They are no longer for you," Thuban said, their voice quiet, but like a whip slicing through the air. Immediately, the serpent recoiled, and closing its great jaws it sunk back into the sand, disappearing out of sight. Then, Thuban swung their head towards the three travelers and considered them with an unreadable expression.

Koume appeared resigned about what might happen next, while Vaati stood over Sheik who was completely unconscious now, his timer ticking at five minutes remaining. Vaati held his fingers curled into fists and his arms slightly held out in front of him, as though he believed he had some power to stop a god with just his hands.

Thuban seemed to find amusement in this, and they smiled to themselves before they disappeared in a flurry of sand, only to reappear quickly next to Vaati. Then, before Vaati could do anything rash, the Keaton passed a hand over Sheik's body, and the gold writing from the scorpion's poison vanished without a trace.

Relief passed over Vaati's face when Sheik stirred and woke up, but then he glared at Thuban in suspicion as the Keaton moved next towards the witch who'd saved them.

" _Koume, you know what I am here for_ ," Vaati heard Thuban say in that same, quietly threatening voice they'd used on Ammit. Thinking that their savior was in danger, Vaati and Sheik both made a move to rush to her side, but they stopped when Koume shot them a piercing gaze as though to tell them to back off. The two hesitated, and then slowly helped themselves up on to their feet, but respected her unspoken request.

The witch gave an audible, tired sigh, and then she clapped her hands once, summoning the broomstick embedded with the cracked blue gemstone. With a sharp tap, she popped the stone off of the wooden handle, and she chucked it at the Keaton. Her expression wasn't visible due to her mask, but from the way she stood with her legs spread defiantly and her fingers curled into fists, one could tell that she was glaring at the god in anger. "Just take me to my sister, you bastard," she hissed.

Thuban glanced down at the gem that had bounced off their chest where it had hit them. Then, they looked up at the witch, and returned a warm smile. Surprisingly, it didn't appear mocking or sarcastic, and for some reason they looked genuinely impressed by something. It was such an unexpected expression that both Sheik and Vaati wondered if they'd imagined it, but the Keaton's net words confirmed that'd seen true. Thuban gave a single, slow nod. " _I am proud of you,"_ they said, and then with a snap of their fingers, Koume froze, turning into a statue that looked exactly like the ones Vaati and Sheik had seen in the void at the Palace of Winds.

Sheik no longer needed to be supported, but for some reason the remaining two found themselves in a position where Vaati was still holding on to Sheik's arm like he was supporting his weight, and Sheik was huddled close with his free hand near the bag that contained one of Thuban's daggers. They both took a cautious step back when the Keaton hovered closer, their ringed tail still hooked like that giant scorpion's…

" _Congratulations, you two_ ," Thuban suddenly barked, their gold teeth flashing into a wide grin, " _You made it. No easy feat for you to have come this far."_

Vaati and Sheik exchanged glances with each other, not entirely sure what to do or what to say. They still hadn't made much sense of the last several hours, starting with the visions and then with Sheik getting poisoned and then Koume saving them only to have Thuban show up and turn her into a statue…

A part of them expected Thuban to suddenly attack them. Still, time passed, and the Keaton continued to chat rather amicably as though the entire pursuit with Ammit and their help from Koume hadn't occurred.

" _The desert ends just over this sand dune. I await you on the other side to keep my end of the promise."_

And with that, Thuban disappeared once again, leaving a flabbergasted Vaati and Sheik still clutching each other at the base of a sand dune. Blinking in disbelief, they both stared at the empty spot where Thuban had last been, and then they looked at each other once again in confirmation that they'd both seen and heard the same thing. Vaati slowly let go of Sheik, and he turned back to look at where Koume had been turned into a statue except-

She was nowhere to be found.

"We never got to thank her," Sheik said, echoing Vaati's thoughts.

Vaati didn't say anything for a while, only looking at the empty spot with his brows gnarled into a stern arch. Then, he turned his heel and began to walk up the dune; the last one they would ever have to walk, if Thuban wasn't lying to them. "Come on, let's end this," he murmured.

They made it quickly over the sand dune. Neither of them ran as they were both exhausted from their ordeal, but their pace was much quicker than when they'd travelled the desert with chains between their ankles. There was an almost excited bounce to their step the closer they made it to the top, a renewed energy from anticipation.

This was it. They'd made it. They still didn't understand a Din damned thing that had happened to them and why it had happened to them, but they were _alive_ and they were going to be able to leave the desert forever. They'd done it _together_ and neither of them had to die.

They'd survived, just like they'd said they would. Just like they'd promised.

Eager to see something other than miles and miles of sand, Vaati and Sheik quickened their steps near the top of the dune. However, as soon as they saw what was beyond the sand, their anticipatory smiles, which had been at the edge of their lips, slowly fell into a confused and terrible expression.

Despair.

The robed man had been right when he'd told them that only despair awaited them at their journey's end.

 _What… what is this?_ Vaati thought.

Beside him, Sheik sank on his knees, staring blankly at the sight that awaited them.

The dune tapered off into flat land, straight ahead of where they were standing, and the sand, now white rather than gold, stretched for about forty feet more. Beyond it, the sand disappeared, but what met their sight was but a different kind of desert.

The ocean.

Miles and miles and miles of endless ocean, blue as far as the eye could see.

_This is your truth._


	13. To Defy a God

_The false Sheikah and the false God fight. They both die at each other's hands.  
The goddesses flood the world, and the world will move on as it always has._

_Begin again._

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vaati took a feeble step forward to the desert's end, searching the endless blue waters that flooded the horizon for something, anything that would give him some kind of answer. An answer to what? He wasn't sure. At this point his mind was as empty as what lay before him. Next to him, Sheik was still on his knees, his legs having given out at the overwhelming despair and shock upon realizing that reaching the end of the desert had been a cruel, cruel joke. They'd carried hope, Sheik more than anyone, all the way until now across the haunting, twisted desert, and in a single instant Thuban had shattered it.

" _This is your truth_."

The black Keaton reappeared beside them, their bandaged hands crossed over their chest. Rather than laughing at them for pulling such a horrible prank, their expression was cold, and their gold grin was nowhere to be seen. There was a gravity surrounding them this time as they, too, watched the small waves roll gently onto the shore. " _I told you both at the beginning that you may not like the answer you find here, at the end of your journey,"_ they said. Then, they added softly, " _I could have told you what awaits you at the start, of that I am aware."_

Betrayal flashed across Vaati's face, and he whipped his head towards the black Keaton. "And what _is_ this truth, you bastard? _!_ Why didn't you tell us that _this_ ," he waved a hand at the rolling water, "is all we were going to get for our troubles? _We nearly DIED out there!_ "

Thuban momentarily appeared amused at the mention of 'death,' and a small fanged smile appeared on their face. " _I could have told you everything, but I already know what would have happened if I had. First, you would have refused to believe me. Death, after all, is not always easy to accept."_

"What…? What do you mean by that?" Vaati asked, faltering.

Beside him, Sheik had paled, Thuban's words striking something familiar at his core. From Vaati's hesitation, he knew that his companion had also felt something that was true about the Arbiter's implications; it was like a truth they'd known deep down, but their minds had refused to let them see it until now. It didn't make sense, they were here, alive. They breathed, they became fatigued, thirsty, hungry. But what if all of those feelings had simply been an illusion…

Like the illusion of the Sorcerer he'd encountered at the Palace of Winds?

_Dead…?_

" _Second,"_ Thuban continued, ignoring Vaati's question, " _I said that only those deserving will know the truth. There is a reason you were chained together, a reason why I did not allow you to remember everything from the start."_ The fox suddenly turned to face the two travelers, then, causing both of them to flinch backwards in surprise. Then, without warning, Thuban threw their bandaged hands forward and touched them both on their foreheads. Their gold eyes were intense, and for a reason neither of them could fathom, they almost looked, for the briefest of moments, angry. " _You would have ended the other."_

The force of memories coming back at once nearly overwhelmed Vaati to the point of nearly blacking him out. Hundreds and hundreds of images and emotions flooded into his head, and he fell to his hands and knees, fingers digging into the sand. He curled over with his mouth open in a silent scream, trying to make sense of the full weight of his past hitting him at once.

He remembered _everything_.

His time as a Minish, small mouse-like creatures spoken of in fairy tales. His time with Ezlo, his old mentor who had led him to perhaps the greatest turning point in his life - the true beginning of Vaati, the Sorcerer of Winds. He remembered his anger at his own limitations, remembered his pursuit for something greater than what he was told he would be, and he remembered the mistake that had cost him the freedom he so coveted.

He remembered letting the hero reach him, not knowing at the time just how powerful those favored by the divine could be. He remembered his rage at the hero, his rage at the _injustice_ of it all, that from the start his path had been fixed so that he would lose.

And then darkness.

Infinite, infinite darkness for an unfathomable length of time.

He'd nearly gone insane.

Unable to see, to feel, to hear anything but his own, imagined breaths. Only his thoughts to keep him company.

He remembered memories becoming vague, melded together with visions he couldn't tell were real. Reality was blurred.

But he hung on. He was determined. He _refused_ to lose himself like this.

Rage.

Rage.

The one thing he knew to be real. The last thing he remembered. The one thing he knew he would never, ever forget.

And then light. Sound. He could feel his body, move his limbs. There was a girl. A princess. She was very much like the one he'd tried to steal the Light Force from, but at the same time different. He didn't know what was going on, didn't know why he was looking at someone who was similar and different to another he'd once known.

His confusion, however, had been brief. Reality was blurred. He couldn't tell what was real, what was not. For all he knew this… _this_ was an illusion forged from the void. But he didn't care. Didn't care. For a fraction of a moment the princess cracked a splinter into his wrath, challenging him with a ferocity that almost matched his own.

But it had been momentary. Once again, the same mistake. Once again, he'd been destined to lose from the start.

A cycle. A _cycle_. Back in the void once more he finally understood that he'd become trapped in some kind of cycle. But the understanding was vague - everything had happened so fast. He'd been released from the void only to return to it, a glimpse of the light outside before being shrouded in darkness once again, left to his own, crumbling thoughts.

Rage. Anger.

Anger.

Tangible anger.

The only thing that was real was anger.

Light again. Sound. He knew not how much time had passed, but he didn't care anymore. Time held no meaning when his only reality was anger. Wrath. He began to gather maidens, not completely sure why, but vaguely certain that he was searching for something. Some kind of power. He searched for a power that could be found in maidens tied to the goddesses. Why did he search?

Power.

Wrath.

Ruin.

He would ruin them all and show them the void that only he knew.

The void once again. Was he used to this by now? This endless, maddening darkness that whittled away at his sanity? He was sane, sane! He knew what was _real_. He knew what _mattered._ He was Wrath Incarnate and insanity could not take him! Wrath.

Wrath.

_Wrath._

One last time, he was freed, another cycle starting anew like some sick kind of joke Fate had trapped him in. Was it because he'd challenged the gods? Were they so threatened by his claim to godhood that they'd entangled him in the same legends of others favored by the divine?

A god. He was a _god_ and thus he would show the world what a true god could do. _This time_ , he would not let Fate have its way. For far too long he'd been distracted by power that would let him ascend to true godhood, but he was already a god. _He was already a god._ He would destroy everything the goddesses created, show them that with his own hands he could ruin what they had so lovingly made.

And he'd succeeded.

He'd killed the hero immediately. _This time_ he would not be stopped by the goddesses' wretched _dog_. _This time_ would be _different._ He would not hesitate. He'd destroyed Hyrule with a sweep of his hand. He'd gathered the irritating Hylians who deserved nothing more than death, for they were creations of the goddesses who he so despised. He laughed as he showed them the same darkness he'd suffered, sneered as he allowed some to die slowly at his feet, begging for the quick end that he refused to grant them. They had never given him respite, so why should he grant it to them? He did the same to the monsters, for they, too, were nothing but trash below trash to a true god.

However…

He'd waited expectantly for the gods to reveal themselves once he'd destroyed everything they'd created. If they cared so much about their wretched little world, wouldn't they stop him? After all the trouble they'd gone through to make sure he would continue to lose against their pawns, wouldn't they finally intervene?

Cowards.

_They were cowards!_

The Palace of Winds. An intruder dragged themselves before his feet, armed with nothing but a dagger. As though in answer to his accusations, the gods had sent him their final champion: the shadow of a princess he'd believed he'd killed. Battered, beaten, resigned to die, they'd arrived at his Palace. No matter how many times he beat them down they _returned_.

He remembered his rage flaring, not because of the challenge, but because his challenger probably did not even know why they felt compelled to fight him. Another useless pawn, an empty husk moving at the bidding of the divine. The gods couldn't face him themselves, couldn't acknowledge him, and instead sent him this pitiful mortal to his palace?

He'd beat them. Tortured them. Made them feel as much pain as he could. _They_ did not know reality like he did. Let them feel every edge of his Wrath, let them know what was truly real. This. This world was not real.

Wrath.

Wrath was real.

An arrow through his chest. Pain shooting through his limbs. Staggering, he slammed his foot down, refusing, _refusing_ to fall. He was Wrath Incarnate. A god. _A god does not fall._

He turned. The husk was there, lying in his own pool of blood, dead now with a smile on his face. Because the husk knew that Vaati would die, too.

The cycle had ended.

And the husk's name was Sheik.

 _Sheik_.

Vaati's clawed fingers loosened where he'd been gripping the sand. Slowly, he uncurled, carefully straightening with a cold, unreadable expression on his face. He was… dead.

_Dead._

Sheik had killed him. Somehow this knowledge neither shocked nor surprised him. The things he remembered, too, did not disturb him, instead bringing satisfied acceptance.

Nothing had changed. Even in death, the gods had toyed with him, laughing at his fate, perhaps. The rage just bubbling beneath the surface this entire time made sense to him now, and in this clarity he found cold, cold comfort. However, there was one thing he did not understand, one thing he could not make sense of. He still knew anger, but… it wasn't _Wrath_.

He was dead, and this world was not real. The reality he'd held onto, the Wrath that had grounded him…

It was… gone.

The blinding rage, the fury that had driven his actions.

Gone.

He remembered everything, and yet he didn't quite remember how or why he'd held onto Wrath for so long.

Vaati slowly turned his head towards the husk, towards Sheik, who had accompanied him across the desert. His expression was flat, perhaps a little pensive, as he unflinchingly looked upon the _Sheikah_ who was now standing over him, pointing the obsidian dagger at his throat.

 _Now there… there is Wrath,_ Vaati thought, looking at Sheik's expression, twisted and gnarled with betrayal and rage. The former sorcerer couldn't help but smile a little, finding irony in the situation. Even the one who'd held on to Faith had crumbled under the reality that was Wrath. It only showed that he'd been right - Faith was flimsy and foolish.

Sheik's hands shook as he clutched the blade and pointed the weapon he'd once claimed he would never turn towards Vaati. His red eyes were intense with rage, and his face was contorted into an ugly snarl. "You…" his voice quivered, "You dare laugh after everything you've done?"

Sheik, too, had remembered everything. It burned him mad when he saw Vaati's smile broaden at his question, amused by something which Sheik could imagine only made sense in the sorcerer's twisted mind. He remembered that same, taunting smile, the smile that had haunted him every hour of his life after he'd allowed his kingdom to fall.

It had all happened so fast. The seal that had trapped Evil had broken, and he, no, _Zelda_ , had doomed the hero to follow the path that led to his gruesome death. Vaati had anticipated every single move, and had made it known in a bloody manner that there was no hope in stopping him. Her soldiers, fallen. Her subjects, tortured. She'd tried to fight the sorcerer himself, only to have Impa sacrifice her life to give her a chance to live.

But Zelda hadn't been able to bear it. They were all dead. Dead. Because of her. What's a queen without a kingdom?

Zelda was dead.

Sheik took her place.

He still carried that bitter self-loathing towards Sheik as he did Zelda. After all, he knew, he _knew_ that he was simply running from the tragedy he'd failed to stop, afraid to fight after Impa had given hers so he could live. Paralyzed in fear he'd hid, waiting for an opportunity that would never come, watching as the world became even more desolate with every passing day. By the time he'd decided to face the sorcerer once more, there had been nothing left of the world to save.

And it was _all_ because of _him._ This… this sick, wretched man who was smiling at him even as he pointed a dagger at his throat like he found hilarity in all of this. This sick, sick man who'd destroyed an entire world for what? A whim?

_I'll make you_ _**pay** _ _._

"Thuban," Sheik whispered, and the fox's ears twitched in his direction, "We're dead then, yes? We're no longer in the mortal realm." He spoke, voice leaden with acceptance.

The Keaton nodded once. " _Yes."_

"… What happens if we 'die' again, here? You once asked us to kill each other with this black blade. What happens to the one who 'dies?'"

The fox observed the Sheikah threatening Vaati with a dagger for some time, and then replied, " _Their existence will be completely erased, their souls lost forever to the void. Mortals believe 'death' is an end, but this is not true, for souls still have an option to begin anew through reincarnation. A second chance at a fulfilling life. Those whose existence is completely erased, however,"_ Thuban ran a tongue along their fangs, " _they are the ones who are truly, truly ended."_

"So they die. For good this time," Sheik said, his voice just barely audible. The soft tremor betrayed his barely contained rage.

" _If that is easier for you to understand, then yes. I suppose it can be described as such."_

There was a pause while Sheik thought on the god's words. Then -

"… Good."

With lightning speed, Sheik lunged forward with the dagger, aiming for Vaati's throat. Just as quickly, the sorcerer vanished, teleporting away and revealing that he now recalled the magic that had been locked away in his memory. Against Vaati's magic, Sheik knew that he wouldn't last, similar to his final moments at the Palace of Winds. Even so, the Sheikah didn't care. He was blinded by rage, and he dove at the sorcerer recklessly.

Ferocity charging every blow, Sheik rained down strike after strike at Vaati. Vaati was no longer smiling, his expression instead settling onto that same, pensive one he'd had earlier, and he deflected and dodged every single one of Sheik's attacks. The sorcerer's unfocused look only served to infuriate Sheik even more, and he surprised him by performing magic of his own. " _Farore's Wind!"_ Sheik shouted, instantly vanishing and reappearing behind Vaati with a burst of light, and this time, his blade connected with Vaati's left shoulder blade. Sheik scowled, disappointed that the sorcerer had managed to dodge enough to miss his neck.

Blood instantly blossoming along the fabric where he'd been stabbed, Vaati whirled around and blocked another barrage of vicious attacks with a grimace. The sorcerer bit through the pain of his wounded shoulder, but there was noticeable awkwardness on his left side where he'd been stabbed.

Tiring of how Vaati seemed to so easily parry every single one of his blows, Sheik somersaulted away to make distance and summoned a bow of light in his hands. The speed with which he summoned it meant that it wasn't strong enough to kill, but it would definitely cause substantial pain.

And he wanted Vaati to know _pain_.

He released the first arrow. Vaati barely dodged it, and it clipped his ear, sending energy crackling to his head. The sorcerer flinched, bringing a hand up to his temples, grimacing in pain.

Rage. _Wrath_. Sheik had never known so much anger.

Another arrow was released within a split second of the first one, and this time, Vaati was unable to dodge or block it. It hit him squarely in the chest, similar to how the fully charged arrow had ended him at the Palace of Winds. This time, Vaati was unable to hold back an agonized shout of pain, and he dropped to his knees -

 _Sheik, all I feel is anger_.

\- but Sheik wasn't going to let him hit the ground just yet. He wasn't going to let him drop so easily, oh no. He dove forward, grabbing him by the shoulder and then slamming a knee into his ribs with enough force to break them. Vaati coughed up blood, gagging for breath as the wind was knocked out of his lungs. While the sorcerer doubled over, Sheik spun on his heels, letting the momentum of the spin bring more force into the kick that smashed out Vaati's knees -

_You helped me remember something._

\- As Vaati fell, Sheik twirled the black blade in his hands and made a swift upward slash, aiming for Vaati's dagger. The blade sliced past two of Vaati's hand, causing him to lose both his grip on his weapon as well as two fingers. Then, as a finale to the vicious barrage of attacks, Sheik slammed him down with a fist at the other's jaw and pinned him down against the sand, straddling him with one knee still jabbed into the ribs he'd broken earlier. Grasping his dagger with both hands raised, he brought it down to plunge it straight into the center of the sorcerer's head.

_I remembered something other than anger._

The blade froze. Its pointed tip hovering just an inch above Vaati's forehead. Several feet away, Thuban's jaws opened just slightly, displaying surprise. " _Oh?"_ they wondered aloud, and their ears swiveled forwards with curious interest.

Sheik's hands shook, his knuckles white against the hilt of the obsidian dagger. Beneath him, Vaati was dazed and worn from the damage, hands spread out on both sides limply like he'd given up.

"Why…" Sheik asked hoarsely, the blade trembling above Vaati's face, "Why don't you _fight?_ "

Gradually recovering from the blows he'd taken, Vaati squinted up past the weapon hovering inches above him. Sheik's eyes were hidden behind a mess of bangs, but his lips were pulled back in a pained snarl. The sorcerer stared for a few seconds, and then a grin creeped along his face. Eventually, he chuckled, a tired gurgle that died down into ragged wheezing, his ribs causing him pain. He remembered the same exact words he'd asked Sheik, once, during their journey across the sands; somehow he found it amusing to hear it again, here.

Something hit his cheek, and Vaati's crooked grin faded. A droplet of water had splashed just below his eye, and he looked up in surprise. Tears. Tears splashed onto his face, and the dagger above his face shook unsteadily.

His expression still hidden to Vaati, Sheik yanked the dagger back and then angrily stood up, no longer pinning Vaati against the sand. Without another word, he stormed off towards the edge of the water and made to throw the weapon into the abyss, before he crumpled just at the ocean's edge. Sheik sat, his back hunched and looking rather small, staring out at the horizon with his dagger hand lying limply beside him. The water splashed at his feet, but the Sheikah didn't seem to care.

Still lying spread-eagled on the sand, Vaati looked blankly up at the sky. He hurt all over, and he was still somewhat dazed from the hit he'd taken across his face. It pained him to breathe, and his left arm didn't move the way he wanted it to, from the knife wound to his back. He was missing two fingers on his right hand, and the sand around him was splattered red.

The pain didn't bother him more than Sheik's tears that were drying on his face.

_Why don't I fight, hmm?_

As though in reminder, Thuban hovered over towards them, and announced, " _I gave you an offer and my offer still stands. If you end the other, I will give you a second chance. You may begin again in a new time, a new world; an escape away from this empty land where souls roam without purpose."_

Something stirred within the sorcerer when he heard Thuban speak. The dimmed fire sparked behind his eyes, and his hands twitched. Slowly, painfully, he forced his body to roll over so he could push himself back onto his feet. It took some effort, Sheik having done quite a number on him, but through sheer determination of will he crawled onto his knees and onto his feet. Back still doubled over and his good arm cradling his wounds, he glanced over his shoulder at Sheik who was still brooding by the water.

_You ask why? Well…_

A chuckle,

_Wrath was never directed at you, was it._

Vaati turned towards Thuban then, who was watching him with interest. Pulling himself up to straighten his back, the Wind Mage narrowed his eyes at the god. "I heard from a certain witch that you don't exactly play fair."

Gold eyes flashed. " _And what are you implying, Sorcerer?"_ Lines of gold teeth spread across black as Thuban began to grin.

Vaati shrugged. Or, at least tried to. He winced as pain shot through his shoulder, but he straightened himself again, as proud as he'd been at the peak of his power. A god standing before a god. "I remembered something, and it fits with what I heard. I've never been fond of you, and I definitely do not trust you."

" _You presume I will not make good on my offer?"_

"Perhaps," Vaati returned a smile, but it was chillingly malevolent. "I don't care for it, to be honest, because I remembered something else about my past. You see, I remembered that I _hate_ gods, and I've always wanted to drag one down from their lofty perches and beat them to the earth where they belong."

Parted lips revealed rows of fangs. " _Oh?"_

"Smug cowards who always let some fool do their dirty work, too afraid to face me themselves," Vaati continued. Darkness began to pool around his feet and coil around his hands. His eyes glowed, menacing. "But now I finally meet one, face to face. I was waiting for this."

Similarly, the shadow beneath Thuban also seemed to grow, almost like a much larger creature was hidden behind an illusion of the small Keaton. Thuban clacked their teeth in amusement, laughing as they did so. " _Is this a challenge I hear? Do you know who I am?"_ Suddenly, Thuban dropped down onto the sand from where they'd been hovering, crashing down with a weight that was much heavier than what one would expect from the Keaton. They landed on all fours, and then with a darkness covering them briefly, they transformed into a monstrous black beast as large as a small house. The monster looked just like the statue of the three-tailed fox that Vaati and Sheik had seen at the nightmarish version of the Palace of Winds, and there was a feral savageness to them that had been missing in their more humanoid form.

" _I am a God of Death, and I rule this domain! You of all people should know that those who anger gods do not go unpunished. You dare to challenge me?"_

As broken as he was from his earlier fight, Vaati didn't hesitate. "I don't think you understand just how long I've been waiting for this moment."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_I couldn't do it…_

Sheik stared blankly at the ocean, the foams lapping at his toes as they swirled up along the sand. He couldn't feel anything. He was numb. Nothing seemed to matter anymore, and he felt so lost on what he was supposed to do. In his right hand he still held the obsidian dagger, blood still dripping from its blade.

It had been his chance to do right by his kingdom, and yet he'd failed his people once again. He could have avenged them all, but at the last second he'd stilled his blade. Of all the people he'd ever known, Vaati was the last person who deserved mercy, and yet…

He hung his head, his body suddenly feeling heavy. Tired.

It had all been true. What he'd seen at the Palace of Winds, the sadistic sorcerer he'd seen in his vision, all of that had been true. That was who Vaati had been. No, that was who Vaati _was_. But if that was true, then why, _why_ couldn't he bring the blade down between those blank eyes, looking at him like they'd accepted the fact that this was inevitable? That this was how it should be?

The tears of frustration had long since dried on his skin, mixed now with the ocean spray that flecked across his cheeks. His old memories were true, and he could not deny the atrocities that Vaati had committed while alive. However, he could not reconcile them with his newer memories. He despised himself for the friendly words they'd exchanged. He hated himself for actually reaching a point where he genuinely enjoyed his company, and perhaps even liked him.

It was almost like he'd known two, entirely different people. The Vaati he'd known before was a ruthless, sadistic individual who took pleasure in the suffering of others. The sorcerer had been a tempest, raining his wrath down on everything like he harbored a festering grudge against the world itself. The Vaati he'd known in death, however…

This Vaati had been slightly cynical, a realist, but never as nasty as the Sorcerer. Vulnerable, even. He still remembered the mornings when he'd found the other tightly curled like they'd been trapped in a terrible nightmare, and he still remembered those distant expressions like Vaati had seen things no mortal should ever have to see. He always had a feeling that Vaati's cynicism was a veil that hid the terror his nightmares brought; a veil that had broken when they'd confronted the darkness at the Palace of Winds. The Void.

And Vaati had… _saved_ him, even going so far as to risk himself by facing the monstrous serpent Ammit. How? How could he reconcile this Vaati with the one he'd known?

It was impossible…

And this other Vaati, the one who was his friend, was still there. It was why he hadn't been able to finish the fight, why he hadn't been able to plunge the dagger and finally end him. Vaati could have easily destroyed him now that his magic had returned, and yet he'd never once fought back. He'd only defended himself.

He never once fought back.

_Why?_

Sheik clutched his forehead in his hands. He couldn't justify his wrath this way.

_Why don't you fight?_

Suddenly, Sheik became acutely aware of an object lying in the sand next to him that hadn't been there before. He turned his head, and to his surprise found that it was the red-bound book of the Grand Scribe. He wasn't sure how it had gotten there, since it had been in Vaati's possession, but his surprise was only momentary. He had a feeling that, although they'd never been able to see the Grand Scribe, they had always been somewhere nearby, watching them. Tentatively, he reached for the book and slowly opened its pages.

There was nothing new written inside, only words that they'd seen before during their travels. Sheik flipped through them, pausing once on the final page that the Scribe had left them. His brows furrowed as he reread the words of encouragement, cheering both of them on. Their words were like a distant memory, now, of a time more innocent: _I believe in you. You'll make it. I believe in you_.

Sheik sighed. "But what's left?" he wondered aloud quietly. "What's the point?" He stared at the empty page beside the last inked one, willing an answer from the Scribe to appear. When he was met with only a blank page, he clutched the covers of the book. "Tell me," he whispered, "What am I supposed to do now?"

A loud crash behind him caused him to lift his head and look over his shoulder. A powerful gust blowing sand every which way forced him to cover his eyes, and the pages of the book flipped wildly in the wind. A dust cloud kicked up from the commotion, and though he couldn't see anything, Sheik could hear the bone chilling roar of a terrible creature, followed by explosions and another eerie howl. Several minutes later, the dust subsided, and from within the cloud he saw the shadow of a large black monster. It was a Thuban in their monster form, and between their gold teeth was a torn and bloodied figure, just barely hanging on to consciousness.

Sheik's breath hitched. _Vaati!_

Without thinking, he jumped to his feet to help him, but then he froze. He couldn't move, doubt and resentment holding him in place.

The beast dropped the limp body and slammed its claws into its back, crushing it against the ground. It lowered its head, then, apparently exchanging some words with its victim.

_Justice…_

_Is this justice?_

If it was, then why couldn't he bring himself to rejoice over the sorcerer's pain?

He found himself looking towards the book in his hands for some kind of help. The pages had turned from the wind earlier, stopping at one of the later messages the scribe had left them. Sheik paused upon reading what page it had stopped on. It was the message that the scribe had left them just before they'd faced a vision from their past:

_Know your own truth. Have faith in what you know._

Sheik stared at the words, and then shook his head weakly.

_I don't know, I don't know what the truth is anymore._

There was an agonized shout that faded into a gruesome, rattling gurgle; Thuban crushing Vaati slowly into the sand, claws puncturing into his back. Red streaming between the grains.

He looked at the book.

He looked towards the bloodied body.

He looked at Thuban with their jaws stretched out into a wide, terrible grin.

 _No_ … Sheik thought. He did know something. What he saw here…

_This… This isn't justice…_

No matter what Vaati had done in the past, no matter how much pain he wanted the wind mage to feel so that Vaati would understand every second of agony he'd experienced, this wasn't right. The Vaati here, right now, wasn't the same person. If he acted out of anger now then he was no better than who Vaati had been.

"Stop."

He took a step towards the beast, closing the scribe's book and putting it away in his bag. With his other hand he gripped the dagger. Thuban swung their head towards him as he approached, but determination spurred him and he didn't falter. Even as the god's eyes narrowed into a glare, Sheik continued to approach them.

"Release him," he ordered, brandishing his dagger.

The god's long ears flicked, and they regarded Sheik with intrigue. Still, they refused to back down and kept one enormous clawed paw pressed on the bleeding sorcerer's back. " _This quarrel does not concern you,"_ Thuban growled. Then, they added, " _Is this not what you wanted, after everything he did to you? Do not worry, he will not fade unless the blow is made by the dagger you hold. Here he will suffer. Here he will suffer the same punishment he handed to those who defied a god. This,_ _ **this**_ _is the punishment he chose for his victims. He, too, has defied a god and so he will pay. This is fair. This is just. Tell me, is this not what you wanted?"_

"Please."

The black Keaton studied him for some time, their eyes searching his motivation. And then, finally, Thuban released their hold on the sorcerer and settled down, folding their limbs and resting their great head atop them. They carefully watched Sheik, wondering what he planned to do.

With a deep breath, Sheik slowly approached Vaati lying face down in a pool of his own blood - an image that was familiar, except this time their roles had become reversed. It was a grisly sight, and in normal cases Vaati should have very well been dead by now. However, as Thuban had said earlier, he would not fade unless it was by the dagger in Sheik's hand. The god was right; how Vaati looked now was like the fate of his former victims. Vaati had, in a sense, chosen this punishment and was now paying it in kind. Once, Sheik had wished the same and more for the sorcerer, but there was no joy to seeing this. Vengeance did not bring the peace he'd wanted. It was gruesome. He had to look away.

Somehow, the mangled, bloody mess on the ground was still capable of speech and movement. An arm, or whatever remained of it, reached forward weakly and clawed at the sand slipping between their fingers. The body attempted to push itself up, but gave up its attempt. Resigning himself to the fact that he would not be able to sit up, Vaati wheezed from where he lay, a hollow rattle grating his throat. "Sheik," he coughed, "What do you think… you're doing?"

Not 'trash.' Not 'mortal.' He addressed him by name.

Sheik's grip on his dagger tightened. Thuban continued to watch him in silence, as still as a statue.

"… Why didn't you fight back?" the Sheikah asked, his voice just barely above a whisper. When Vaati didn't answer, he spoke louder this time, threatening him with his blade. "Answer me, or I end you right now."

Silence. The sorcerer seemed to think if it was a question worth answering, and he lay still on the ground for some time with labored breaths. Then, with the last remaining sliver of energy, Vaati pushed into the blood-mixed sand until he rolled over onto his back. His head up towards the sky, he let his useless arms drop limply. "I have… no quarrel with you," he replied. He sounded gone, like he'd given up. "I am aware you want to finish me. I cannot stop you, not as how I… am now."

This, _this_ was the infamous Sorcerer of Winds? This defeated, feeble individual with broken pride?

"Who," Sheik asked. He felt lost and weak, confused by everything that had happened. Unsure of what he wanted, or what he was supposed to do. "Who are you?" _Who were you?_

To this, the sorcerer sounded sympathetic. The grimace on his face softened, and he answered, "I'm not sure myself."

The rhythmic swells of the ocean running along the shore filled the air. Sheik clenched his jaws, his head angled away, pained creases etched into creases below his eyes. He swayed, and then he sat down, resting his head against a hand. A slight tilt of his chin towards Thuban, Sheik whispered hoarsely, "I just… I just want the fighting to stop." Then, he turned away, pinching his eyes closed, clutching his head as he mumbled more to himself now. "That wasn't you. The Palace… that wasn't you." The dagger quivered in his hand, his voice a tremor. "If I could save just one life…"

Gold eyes swiveled slowly from Sheik to the bloody mess that was Vaati. Then, with a slow blink, they moved back to Sheik and Thuban stirred. The god lifted their head from where they'd been resting it atop their paws, and snapped their jaws. " _A decision must still be made. You have reached the end, and for this you have earned truth. You have given me no answer regarding my offer. Now, take my offer and end the other, or remain here."_ The Keaton swung their head towards Sheik, their gaze piercing. " _Sheik, will you end Vaati?"_

For a few seconds, Sheik stared blankly at the ocean in front of them. Then, with a heavy sigh shaking his shoulders, he buried his face against a knee. "No," he murmured.

Thuban turned to Vaati next. _"Vaati, I ask you the same question."_

"… No."

" _You say this, despite what the both of you did to each other? And if I told you that you will remain here, forever, like the rest of the dead who wander with their faces covered by a mask?"_ Thuban pressed, a growl rising in their throat.

Sheik's fingers twitched, squeezing the hilt of the dagger that was still in his hands. Then, with a final sweep, he tossed the weapon before his feet. It rolled down the slope for a bit before it rested just where the sand became damp. The next wave rolling in lapped it away, burying it beneath its foams and pulled it down into the abyss. It was gone. That was his answer.

Beside him, Vaati cracked a weak, bitter smile. He repeated familiar words from days past, speaking for Sheik's silent answer this time. "Then we'll find another way."

Thuban's eyes widened, and their ears flicked at the response. For once, they appeared genuinely startled, and they looked at the two tired souls, wondering if they'd misheard. Then, suddenly, rows of fangs spread into a wide grin, and Thuban threw their head back and laughed. " _I am proud of you both,"_ they said, similar to how they had praised Koume before, " _Congratulations Sheik, Vaati. You have passed where many others have failed, proven yourselves to have unyielding, noble souls worthy for another life. I will allow you a chance anew. Begin again."_

There was no response from either of the two. Vaati was still looking up at the sky with a faint, bitter smile. Sheik, still curled over, head buried against a knee. Thuban stood up and stretched, and then turned their head towards the battered sorcerer. The god breathed in his direction, and before long, Vaati's wounds were completely healed.

" _You showed me something interesting. For that, I thank you,_ " Thuban continued, their cheer a stark contrast from the atmosphere surrounding the others. They pointed their muzzle towards the ocean, where a plain wooden boat had appeared. " _Now go. Take the boat. Ausar is waiting."_

However, neither of them moved. Though he had healed, Vaati continued to lay on the blood stained sand, arms sprawled out, staring at the cloudless sky still with that faint, anguished smile on his face. Next to him, Sheik, too, remained still. His lips were pulled back in a pained expression.

Silent tears ran down his cheeks.


	14. Chapter 14

The boat creaked, gently rocking as it glided over the calm ocean. A foggy mist had clouded over the shore until neither Thuban nor his barren domain could be seen. There was an uncertain silence between the two former companions - Sheik gazing ahead near the front of the small wooden vessel, while Vaati gazed backwards from where they'd come. Silence wasn't new, but this was something different from the silence of the past, for it was no longer grounded in mutual understanding but instead stemmed from uncertainty.

_I'm tired…_

Vaati thought he knew what the robed man, the wandering spirit, had meant when he'd told them that they would be met with despair. In all his existence, despair was not something the sorcerer had really known. Always, _always_ , he'd had some way, some plan, some _idea_ that he would be able to conquer whatever challenge stopped him. Even if the challenge was something daunting to the ordinary man, like ascending to the level of gods themselves, Vaati had always had something that drove him forward. Even if he failed he knew he would eventually succeed. Despair was something for others to feel, not him…

He watched the fog roll over the water where white foam left a trail where the boat had drifted. The vessel moved on its own, leading them to whoever this 'Ausar' was that Thuban had mentioned. His fingers clenched for a moment, remembering his gruesome defeat against the god, and then his hands fell limply where they rested on his knee. The fight had been laughable, and not even worthy of being called a 'fight.' True, he had been injured from his fight with Sheik earlier, but the gap in power between him and the god had been nothing like what he'd anticipated. From the time he'd first imagined dethroning the gods, he'd believed a contest would, at the very least, be well matched. He was a god. He was a _god._

_I was just a man._

The pain of that realization had been more devastating than the physical wounds he'd endured.

"I thought I was one of them. A god," he said quietly, the first words spoken since the two had left the beach. "It turns out that I wasn't even close…"

He wasn't sure why he was even talking out loud, but he felt a need to fill the silence. For the first time he could remember in centuries, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. He spoke without purpose, his words floundering for meaning. To be honest, his words didn't need to have meaning, for after they reached wherever Thuban was sending them, they wouldn't remember anything that had happened. They wouldn't remember their past, their mistakes, their victories, their losses. They wouldn't remember how they'd fought against each other, or how for a brief moment they had been fooled into thinking they were -

A wrinkle creased along his nose.

Everything… everything would be gone.

A part of him was fine with that. He was done. He had lost. There was nothing left for him here. However, even while knowing this another part of him couldn't stop looking back, back towards the shore that they were leaving behind. But for what? Regret at everything he had lost? (he had nothing…) Was he afraid of the unfamiliar newness, now that the cycle he'd become accustomed to had finally broken? (he missed none of it…)

It still hadn't quite hit him yet that after all this time he was-

Was he?

_Am I really… free?_

It was something he'd wanted all along, though he hadn't truly recognized it, but now that he had it, it just all felt so empty.

Wrath was gone.

He was just… him. Not a god.

Just an ordinary person.

Vaati tilted his head upwards at the sky. It was a dull grey, slowly becoming enveloped in the same fog that had come rolling over the sea. He wanted the fog to go away, so he could see the same sky he'd forgotten when he'd been blinded by Wrath. However, the fog only thickened, and the vast clear blue of freedom slipped away from him. He thought again how nothing really mattered anymore, since after this Vaati, the Sorcerer of Winds, would become someone else. The wind mage's time was over, and though that thought came with regrets, it was strangely comforting. Past Death's door, the things he'd placed importance on in life seemed trivial now. Nothing mattered anymore.

Nothing.

This was the last chance he had to say whatever he wanted.

"Are you having second thoughts?" the sorcerer asked the Sheikah who was sitting at the front of the boat, his back turned towards him.

There was no response, save perhaps a small creak of the wooden boards from Sheik shifting his weight.

Vaati wasn't sure what to think of the person sitting with him in the boat. It was true what he'd said earlier, that he had no quarrel with the Sheikah. Back when he was alive, he'd wanted nothing more than to destroy anyone related to the royals, but his hatred wasn't personal. Instead, it had been more or less directed at the fact that they were but a pawn to the goddesses. He still carried a lingering resentment for the goddesses' servant, but something had changed while they'd traveled across the desert. They had both been people. Not gods, not servants. He didn't remember the last time he'd actually had a conversation with someone, mostly because he'd been unable to see anyone as a person worth talking to. In the brief time where the two had had no memory of each other, they might have even been friends. They weren't friends now, of course, but in that brief time…

And perhaps this was the reason, starved as he was for conversation and his thoughts no longer clouded by the rage that he'd nursed for hundreds of years, he began to speak words he never imagined he would ever say. "Sheik. I did… terrible things to you." It was hesitant and reflective, an objective analysis as though he were speaking of someone else. The words were detached: a statement of observational fact.

Sheik stirred, and he tilted his head slightly over his shoulder. The Sheikah, too, wore a haggard expression. He appeared unwilling for conversation and maintained his silence, but he seemed somewhat taken aback by the sorcerer's comment. His eyes widened briefly before they returned to that cold, narrowed gaze.

"I am sorry. That things unfolded the way they did," Vaati continued in a quiet murmur.

His head still turned, the tenseness in Sheik's eyes was replaced by surprise. The apology was confused, but genuine, and one the false Sheikah hadn't expected he would ever hear. It was one he hadn't expected he would need to hear.

Then, the warrior's gaze lowered and his expression softened, though the pained wrinkles along his brow remained. He turned back to look ahead at the misty ocean. He finally spoke; the first words since he'd nearly plunged his dagger between Vaati's eyes. "Why did you do those things?" he asked.

There was a small pause. Then, "Would it comfort you to know?"

Sheik considered the question for a while, before he sighed and shook his head to himself. "I don't know," he said. Thinking back on what had happened was exhausting, and a part of him knew that no answer would ever give him peace.

With that, Vaati left Sheik's question unanswered, perhaps because he, too, didn't know how to reply. He could explain it and he could justify it, but he didn't believe it anymore. Back then, anger had been what was real, and it drove everything he did. Hatred bubbled beneath the surface of even his calmest days. Now, however, his anger was gone. His reality was gone. He was just a husk much like Sheik had been when he'd encountered him in those last moments at the Palace of Winds. Empty. "I wonder if reincarnation is any better if we forget everything that had happened," Vaati mused to himself. And then he took a deep breath. "I…" he began, and then he trailed off.

What was it? It was so unlike him to be so uncertain and open with his thoughts. Then again, after what had transpired, he didn't really care about anything anymore. What was said now wouldn't matter, and so he continued to speak his thoughts rather than bottle them up as he'd done for ages. He shifted his seat, turning his head over his shoulder so that he was looking at Sheik now, and he realized that his wavering pause had prompted the blonde to also turn his way. Their gaze met, and Vaati began again, bolder this time with the knowledge that nothing, _nothing_ mattered anymore. "I am afraid," he admitted.

He'd expected to feel disgust or anger at admitting to such a thing, but instead he was surprised to instead find relief. It was like an ancient burden he hadn't known he'd been carrying had finally lifted from his chest, and he could breathe again. His voice was clear and confident in what he wanted to say, for though he'd lost his grasp on who he'd been, there was one thing that was still true. In a way, like anger it had always been true: he just hadn't been able to face it. "I am afraid," he repeated, "to forget the things I remembered here. There were things I'd forgotten, even before the Keaton had taken our memories away. Things I had forgotten through spans of time you couldn't begin to comprehend."

All he'd known was anger, until he remembered…

"I am not sure if I want to live that again."

For several seconds Sheik said nothing. Then, gradually, the edges of his eyes mellowed into an expression that was more familiar to how he'd looked at Vaati before he'd remembered the tragedy between them. Slowly he swung his legs around the seat of the boat so that he was facing the sorcerer. The Sheikah studied the other for a while, and then he took a long, tired breath.

"I'll find you," he said.

Vaati tiled his head, puzzled.

"I'll find you, and this time… this time I'll make sure a tragedy like this never happens again. I swear it," Sheik continued.

Vaati stared, surprised once again by the blonde's familiar determination.

Sheik's gaze lowered slightly. "To be honest, I'm not sure I could ever forgive you for everything you've done. But I think," he sighed, and he looked out at the fog that had become so thick now that they could barely see each other anymore, "I think I understand what Thuban was trying to do. Something needs to change, to heal the anger. It hurts, but we can't go on like this."

Vaati said nothing, though his lips curled into a pensive frown.

"So next time when I find you, perhaps we won't have to meet as enemies - " Sheik said.

Through the thickening mist, Vaati noticed a hand outstretched towards him from across the boat. His eyes lifted slowly to see Sheik with a small, hesitant smile from across the fog.

"- Maybe we can meet as friends"

This time Vaati didn't even try to hide his surprise. He stared through the fog, and his lips were slightly parted out of bewilderment. Then, despite himself, the sorcerer snorted and then smiled to himself. _You idiot…_

He reached through the fog, the mist cool on his skin. Briefly, Sheik's hand was firm around his; warm and rough to the touch but compassionate, just like the conviction that had saved them both. Then Sheik's hands slipped through his fingers, and the two figures on the boat vanished into the fog.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Are you satisfied?"

Back on the shore of the ocean, Thuban addressed the figure that had been standing respectfully behind them for some time now. The Keaton had returned to their less menacing form, though their eyes still gleamed fiercely from behind their cowl. Behind them was a taller individual with birdlike features that betrayed the fact that they were not human. Their fingers and feet were the three-pronged talons of a bird, and long white feathers flowed from their elbows like sleeves of a robe. One might say they were similar to the bird-like race that inhabited the mortal realm, Rito, but their single glowing yellow eye from behind their hood indicated that they were not of the bird race.

The new figure stood up straighter upon being addressed. "They are hurt, but they will heal," they replied. Their composure did not last long, for they began to fidget, their talons grasping another copy of the Grand Scribe's book and picking absentmindedly at its spine. "Thuban-" they began, but they were interrupted.

"I told you not to write any more than what I allowed in that book of yours, Phact, but you disobeyed me at the end," Thuban said harshly, a glimpse of gold fang appearing on black.

Phact's fidgeting worsened and they nearly dropped their book from nerves. The scribe rambled. "Thuban I am sorry. I couldn't… I simply couldn't watch any longer. What you were doing to them I-"

Phact paused when Thuban immediately swept towards them. Afraid, they quieted, but then they noticed that the other god appeared more troubled than angry. They stopped fidgeting with their book when the Keaton shook their head in something like pity.

"I don't know how you stand it," Thuban said, and then they stepped away to give the scribe some space.

"Yes?" Phact asked cautiously.

"To care about them as you do. Does it not tear you apart, when you know that in the end there is little you can do for them?"

At this, the scribe appeared to sigh, their shoulders raising and lowering slightly. Now that it was clear that the Keaton didn't seem interested in punishing them for their transgressions, Phact strode over with a bit more poise than earlier. When they spoke again, their tone had returned to their usual empathetic and patient cadence.

"Surely you don't believe that after what you've done here. Your methods were cruel if I am to be honest, but in the end you saved them both," they insisted.

Thuban, however, appeared bothered by something, and though they kept their expression hidden from the scribe, their tail twitched, betraying unease. Sensing Phact staring, Thuban snapped their head around with a wide, forced grin. Their teeth clacked together as they chuckled. "Phact, I am but one of the Gods of Death, presiding over souls deemed cruel and twisted. It would be wrong of me to meddle to try and change the course of such souls, to give them another chance as it were." Their grin vanished, then, and they hid their face from Phact again. "It would be wrong of me to care."

The scribe studied them for a few seconds, and then, "Thuban, you are angry."

"Am I so easy to read, now?" the Keaton mused.

"Gods are not so different from mortals as our associates would like to believe, and I have spent a great deal of time observing them. You _are_ easy to read. You are angry."

The creases from Thuban's grin along their nose slowly turned into snarl lines. Having nothing to hide from Phact now, their expression remained fixed into a menacing glower. "… Of course I am," they said with quiet rage. "Does it not anger you? Does it not anger you that countless souls I had cast into oblivion, when if they were given an opportunity to change they could have tried again? I had two souls here with more than enough reason to want to destroy each other, but they overcame every trial, trials where I had doomed them to fail. One of these souls nearly destroyed the world. I would have once said that it was a soul that deserved no more chances." Their last few words were coupled with a low growl, and as though in response, the sand below their feet swirled inches off the ground before settling back down.

"I have always believed that our black and white views were unfair, though my opinion is seen as a product of sickness. No one takes me seriously," Phact sympathized. This comment seemed to remind them of something, and Phact suddenly became nervous again. The eye beneath their hood wandered, and their curled shoulders revealed their lack of confidence. "Thuban, the goddesses are going to be very upset with you that you took one of their champions to your domain without their consent. I have heard… I have heard rumors that you may be punished for it."

"Then so be it."

"I worry for you, Thuban. They will not be merciful," Phact pressed. They held their book tightly to their chest, and they turned away, troubled. Among the various gods, Phact was not very powerful, and gods with more influence such as Thuban always made them uneasy. However, over the course of their discussions with Thuban, they'd come to appreciate how the Keaton had been one of the few to take their work seriously; it would be upsetting if something happened to them. "Why did you do it?" They asked softly.

"Perhaps reading that book of yours was a mistake," Thuban replied shortly.

"I am sorry. Troubling you was not my intention."

Thuban waved a bandaged hand in the air, as though to wave away Phact's apology as unnecessary. "The wind mage… I could kind of understand him, Phact. The favoritism that the champions receive does not seem fair to me. We pretend that we give mortals a choice, but do we really? Perhaps he was right. Reading about his history… I was curious to see if the chosen champions could also fail my trial." Their ears twitched, and then they smiled to themselves, shaking their head. With an expression that was as tired as their latest trial goers had been, they lowered themselves to the ground and sat with their head lying against a knee. "… No, it was more than that," they corrected. "Mortals, are surprising, Phact. Their capacity to forgive, to change, to heal, is unique. We can all learn from them. Alas the gods are stubborn and set in our ways. We think ourselves perfect, and it is only when we are aware of just how flawed we are that we can become something better." Thuban sighed. "When did we begin to go wrong?"

Phact joined them. "You have changed."

"I blame your writings."

Beside them, Phact carefully opened their red bound book, turning each page with care. Every page was filled with writing, inked in neat letters and with conscientiousness in every stroke. Eventually they reached a blank page, and the scribe looked back out at the water where Vaati and Sheik had disappeared. "Then I will write about you, so perhaps one day the others may begin to see the world as you do."

At this, Thuban threw their head back and laughed. "No, do not write about me. Keep writing about them, for there is nothing interesting about the existence of a god," they grinned. They nodded towards the ocean, and their smile became somber. "It is from those whose flames are brief from which we have much to learn."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_In another time..._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Where did she go? _!_ "

"Zelda? _Zelda!_ "

An individual no older than sixteen remained ducked behind some shrubbery growing along the path where several adults ran past, calling the name of the village shrine maiden. The hiding teen was none other than the said shrine maiden, and Zelda held her breath until the people looking for her had run a good ways up the path back towards the village.

She'd changed her appearance enough that she was confident that no one would recognize her at first glance, but the island wasn't very big, and everyone practically knew everyone who lived here. If they questioned her about who she was, they would quickly discover her identity as the missing shrine maiden.

She couldn't _stand_ it there, sitting at the temple day in and day out, supposedly because she was some avatar of some goddess. Sometimes she had a feeling that most of the stories about the gods had been made up by the people who'd washed up on this island. They told her she had to stay there to "appease the gods" lest they flood the world again, because apparently the story went that her ancestor had abandoned her duties and caused a once prosperous kingdom to be submerged beneath the sea. She was made to pray a chant in an ancient, forgotten language (gibberish, she was certain), and was told to keep her magic to herself. Ah yes, the others were uneasy about her magic, though they assured her that they respected it as a sign from the heavens that she was a true avatar of the gods. She had a suspicion that part of the reason why they kept her locked up in some shrine was because they were afraid of her.

She didn't deserve this. She wanted to be free. She wanted to see the world beyond the island.

And she _knew_ there was a world out there, despite what the others told her. She'd seen the sails of distant ships, and once she thought she saw an enormous whale passing through the clouds miles above the sea. From time to time traders visited the island, but everyone seemed content to explain that they were from a nearby island away. No one, _no one_ seemed to want to face the possibility that the remnants of an ancient, beautiful civilization was hidden somewhere out there beyond the vast sea. They were afraid, perhaps, of sending imaginative villagers out to sea only for them to never return. Most assumed they'd died in their journey. Zelda liked to believe they'd found something amazing.

Today was the day. She was going to leave and see the world, and she wasn't going to come back until her legs were worn from adventure.

Besides… she'd always had a nagging thought that she needed to find something out there. There was something important that she needed to find. It was out there. She wasn't sure what it was, or perhaps it was even a person, but she couldn't stay here.

Her only regret was leaving Impa behind. The old lady was known as the village's batty witch, but to Zelda she was like a mother. Family. The old woman had kept her company with stories about places beyond the shore, and even taught her how to fight like warriors of old. Though her hair was white from age and her back was slightly crooked, the old woman knew how to _fight_. Through her, Zelda had learned how to conceal small weapons on her person, make smoke bombs out of the deku nuts growing in the woods, and even hone her magic for combat. In fact, Impa had gained the reputation as a witch after the villagers were convinced she'd 'put dangerous ideas into the shrine maiden's head.' She hadn't wanted to leave Impa behind, but the woman had insisted she go alone. "I am too old to see the world, child, but you, you still have time. Come back when you have stories to tell," she'd said.

Zelda peered up the path where her searchers had gone, and then winced when her braid got snarled in a bramble. Frustrated, she took out a dagger and cut her blond locks at the base of her braid: where she was going, she didn't care about appearances. Taking one last look to make sure no one was around to see her, she jumped out of the bushes and made a dash down the dirt path towards the shore. As she ran, she flung some of the twigs that had gotten caught in the blue tunic she'd stolen - er, _borrowed_ \- from someone who'd been taking a bath at the lake. She hoped they wouldn't be too distressed to find their outfit replaced with her shrine maiden dress…

_If I could just get to the docks and take one of the fishing boats out to sea then -_

She slowed. She'd scouted this route several times in the past month in preparation for this sprint, and she knew what was normal and what was not. She knew that the dirt path led down to a small hill where the sand had been blown by the wind, a natural wall covered by tall beach grass. Beyond the hill was a small shore protected on both ends by rocky hills that children liked to dive off of in the hotter months, and beside it was a modest pier where the fishermen's boats were docked. At this noon hour the shore was almost always deserted while most people left for lunch back at the village.

Today, however, there was something on the shore that did not belong. It was -

"A body!" Zelda gasped, and she ran towards the figure of a young man washed up on the beach. As she approached, the teenager just about her age coughed and pushed himself up on his elbows.

"Easy, easy…" she said as she helped him sit up slowly. She was nervous about this unexpected development in her plans to escape, but at the same time, a small part of her was excited. This boy was wearing some kind of robes that were a design like nothing she'd seen from her own island; further proof that there was an entire world for her to see out there. His robes were a dark navy with an almost purple tint, made of a light, loose fabric that thankfully hadn't turned too heavy from water. Rather than boots, he wore sandals, and Zelda figured that if he'd worn anything heavier he might have been less lucky and drowned before washing up on the shore.

The boy's eyes, a startling red that she'd only ever seen on Impa, fluttered open and he squinted at her in a daze. He groaned, and then rubbed his pale ghostly bangs away from his face. "Ughh, what island is this?" he asked.

"Overlook Island." Zelda looked behind her shoulder, still a little concerned about her searchers coming back down to look for her by the shore. Then, she surveyed the ocean with a somewhat bewildered expression. She could see no sign of debris of a shipwreck that would have washed up with the boy if a ship was where he'd come from, nor of any kind of seaward vessel anywhere in the horizon. "What happened? Where did you come from?" she asked.

"Some infuriating frog who claimed themselves a god dropped me here on a tornado…" the boy muttered. He cleared his throat of residual salt water, and then he gave her a flat look when he noticed her staring. "Don't ask, long story."

"Gods exist…?" Zelda asked skeptically, but with a buried hint of awe. The world was bigger than she'd thought.

The boy snorted while he wrung water out of his long hair. "I wouldn't call them that. A word of advice, if I may? Those who insist that they are gods are probably assholes."

She watched him with interest, wondering about the answer he still had yet to tell her. She couldn't help but notice his curiously formal manner of speaking, and wondered what kind of place he'd come from, as well as his story about frog gods and tornados. But more than that, however, she had a strange feeling that she knew him from somewhere, no matter how impossible that was.

Briefly their eyes met, and for a moment the other boy, too, looked startled by something. His hands paused where he'd been squeezing water out of his hair, and he blinked, his brows beginning to knit together in confusion. "Have we," he asked tentatively, "… Have we met before?"

Before Zelda could answer, the two heard a shout from beyond the path leading towards the shore. She jumped backwards, her jaw muscles tense. _No, no! They came back too soon!_

"Halt! You kids over there! We're looking for someone," a group of burly men approached.

 _They can't recognize me. They can't…_ Zelda repeated to herself.

"Hm? You two aren't familiar. Who are you? Are you outsiders?" another man asked.

Next to Zelda, the marooned boy glanced her way, gauging her reactions. His eyes narrowed slightly, and then he turned to address the men. "Yes, we are. Who are you searching for? Anyone dangerous we should be aware of?"

The first man shook his head. "Oh no, nothing of the sort. Our island's shrine maiden has gone missing, you see, and we are concerned for her safety."

"Ah," the boy glanced back at Zelda whose gaze had become fierce, almost angry. Then, a small smirk seemed to play on his lips before he covered it with a serious expression. "Well if I see her I will tell her she is causing you worry."

"Thank you." The men turned to make their search elsewhere along the shore, and Zelda was about to sigh in relief when they stopped. "By the way, who are you kids? I don't see any trade vessels around."

Zelda paled, wondering if this was the question that would lead to her discovery, but the boy beside her appeared confident. He cracked a smile and waved the men away with a pompousness that was much too exaggerated for such a young individual. "Oh, it's rather a long story and I wouldn't want to waste your time while you have a missing person to find. My name is Vaati, I am a cartographer from Windfall Island. This," he pointed his thumb over to Zelda, "is Sheik. He's a friend."

 _Huh?_ Zelda blinked. She stopped herself from looking too surprised, however, and did her best to keep a neutral expression. It wasn't the fact that he'd called her a boy that was surprising (for her disguise and her roughly cropped hair _did_ make her look ambiguously masculine). No, it was something else. Vaati's words struck her in an oddly familiar way in a manner that she had difficulty identifying. It was almost like he'd said something she'd known a long time ago, and she was so shocked that she had trouble not blowing her new cover.

_Sheik._

_He's a friend._

They'd only just met, and the words felt natural, like deep down she knew that this wasn't the first time she'd heard those words before.

"My apologies, I had to think quickly there," Vaati said once the men had left. Zelda hadn't even noticed that the conversation with them had ended. "I had a suspicion you were the one they were looking for, and that you didn't want to be found. I found these islands with marks that read 'Sheik,' though I believe the words were cut off and the real name was once longer-"

Zelda stared at Vaati who had begun to ramble.

"- and that was simply the first name that I could think of. And I hope you did not mind it too much that I told them that you were a boy - "

"No, no!" Zelda exclaimed, shushing him. Then, realizing that she'd spoken rather loudly, she gave an embarrassed cough. "I mean," she hesitated, and then she surprised herself when she continued slowly, "I… I prefer that." She didn't really know how to explain it, other than that both the name and the identity fit, somehow. Like she was remembering something she'd forgotten. Something important.

"Hm." A similar look of curious surprise passed over Vaati's face, like somewhere, sometime, he'd seen this before as well. He tilted his head slightly, and then he shook his head as though dismissing a thought he'd had with a small smile. "Well Sheik, I need to leave this island and get back to what I had been working on before a frog on a cloud interrupted me. You clearly do not want to stay here. So, what will you do now?"

"I was actually planning on leaving by taking one of those fishing boats, before I found you," Zelda, or rather Sheik, frowned. "How were you planning on leaving, since you didn't arrive here by ship?"

However, Vaati had gone on ahead, and was already working on preparing one of the fishing boats to be seaworthy. He appeared comfortable on the sails, like he was used to traveling the ocean freely, and he seemed eager to leave for the freedom of the open ocean despite having just survived a marooning by an angry god. "Actually I was thinking about borrowing one of these ships myself." He paused his work to look at the blond hideaway like he was expecting something.

Sheik's face lit up with a smile, realizing what the other was thinking. "Do you mind if I join you?"

"If you must beg, I suppose."

The wind caught the sails, pushing the boat and its two passengers out to sea; Sheik sitting up at the front, Vaati near the back. Neither of them hounded each other with questions about who they were or where they'd come from and they settled into a familiar quiet as they both watched the island become smaller and smaller on the horizon. It was almost like they felt they had no need for such answers, even though they had just met no longer than an hour ago. Before long, the island was a small dot on the horizon, and excitement welled up in Sheik's chest. Not only was this something he'd been looking forward to for a long time, he also had a strangely comforting sensation that he was continuing a journey that had been left waiting for the both of them.

_Except this time, there was no mist obscuring their path. The sky above them was a brilliant azure._

_They were free._

_Begin again._

_\- Grand Scribe Phact_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this story, it means a lot to me that you made it this far :)  
> My main hangout is on ff.net and tumblr (under 'thewishingcap'), and I often make reader responses and comments about my writing process there (as opposed to here). 
> 
> New stories are updated on ff.net (under fleets) but I will try to post my next stories up on AO3 as well.

**Author's Note:**

> My main website is ff.net, but because I anticipate long wait times for updates on this story as I'm currently working on Soulbound Princess, I am posting this here so that you don't have to wait for me to update to respond to any comments :)


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